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THE FROZEN W. CLARi 




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BY 

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COMPLETE CATALOGUE BY AUTHOBS. 

Lovell’S Libbaky now contains the complete writings of most of the best standard 
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Each number is issued in neat 12mo form, and the type will be found larger, and the 
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JOHN W. LOVEIil. COMPANY, 

P. O. Box 1992. 14: and 16 Vesey St., New York. 


BY G. M. ADAM AND A. E. 


WETHEEALD 

846 An Algonquin Maiden 20 

BY MAX ADELEE 

295 Random Shots 20 

325 Elbow Room 20 

BY GUSTAVE AIMAED 

660 The Adventurers 10 

567 The Trail-Hunter 10 

673 Pearl of the Andes 10 

1011 Pirates of the Prairies 10 

1021 The Trapper’s Daughter 10 

1032 The Tiger Slayer 10 

1045 Trappers of Arkansas 10 

1052 Border Rifles 10 

1063 The Freebooters 10 

1069 The White Scalper 10 

BY MES. ALDEEDICE 

846 An Interesting Case 20 

BY MES. ALEXANDEE 

62 The Wooing O’t, 2 Parts, each 15 

99 The Admiral’s Ward 20 

209 Q’he Executor 20 

349 Valerie’s Pate 10 

664 At Bay 10 

746 Beaton’s Bargain 20 

777 A Second Life 20 

f99 Maid, Wife, or Widow.. 10 

^0 By Woman’s Wit 20 

995 Which Shall it Be? 20 

BY F. ANSTEY 

30 Vice Vers^; or, A Lesson to Fathers. .20 

394 The Giant’s Robe 20 

453 Black Poodle, and Other Tales 20 

616 The Tinted Venus 15 

755 A Fallen Idol 20 

BY T. S. AETHUE 

496 Woman’s Trials 20 

507 The Two Wives 15 

513 Married Life 15 

638 The Ways of Providence 15 

545 Home Scenes .15 

654 Stories for Parents 15 

663 Seed-Time and Harvest 15 

668 Words for the Wise 15 

674 Stories for Young Housekeepers 16 

679 Lessons in Life 15 

682 Off-Hand Sketches 15 

886 Tried and Tempted,,,,. 15 


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BY EDWIN AENOLD 

436 The Light of Asia 20 

455 Pearls of the Faith 15 

472 Indian Song of Songs 10 

BY W. E. AYTOUN 

351 Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers 20 

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756 Conspiracy 25 

BY SIE SAMUEL BAKEE 

206 Cast up by the Sea. 20 

227 Rifle and Hound in Ceylon 20 

233 Eight Years’ Wandering in Ceylon . . 20 

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381 A Pair Device 20 

405 Life of J. G. Blaine 20 

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215 The Red Eric 20 

226 The Fire Brigade 20 

239 Erling the Bold 20 

241 Deep Down 20 

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878 Little Tu’penny 10 

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460 Galaski 20 

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712 Woman 31 

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748 Our Roman Palace 36 

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470 Vic 15 

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901 Charles Auchester 20 

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77 Pillone 15 

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366 The Sergeant's Legacy 20 

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LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


BY WALTER BESANT 


18 They Were Married 10 

103 Let Nothing You Difimay 10 

257 All in a Garden Fair 20 

268 When the Ship Comes Home 10 

884 Dorothy Forster 20 

699 Self or Bearer 10 

842 The World Went Very Well Then ..20 

847 The Holy Rose 10 

002 To Call Her Mine 20 

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48 A Princess of Thule 20 

i A Daughter of Heth 20 

>6 Shandon Bells. 20 

^3 Macleod of Dare 20 

.36 Yolande 20 

142 Strange Adventures of a Phaeton. . . 20 

146 White Wings 20 

153 Sunrise, 2 Parts, each 15 

178 Madcap Violet 20 

180 Kilmeny 20 

182 That Beautiful Wretch 20 

184 Green Pastures, etc 20 

188 In Silk Attire 20 

213 The Three Feathers 20 

216 Lady Silverdale's Sweetheart 10 

217 The Four MacNicols 10 

218 Mr. Pisistratus Brown, M.P 10 

225 Oliver Goldsmith 10 

282 Monarch of Mincing Lane 20 

456 Judith Shakespeare 20 

684 Wise Women of Inverness 10 

678 White Heather 20 

958 Sabina Zembra 20 

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lu4 Lady Audley’s Secret 20 

214 Phantom Fortune 20 

266 Under the Red Flag 10 

444 An Ishmaelite 20 

555 Aurora Floyd 20 

588 To the Bitter End 20 

696 Dead Sea Fruit 2C 

698 The Mistletoe Bough 20 

766 Vixen. 20 

783 The Octoroon 20 

814 Mohawks 20 

868 One Thing Needful 20 

869 Barbara; or. Splendid Misery 20 

870 John Marchmont’s Legacy 20 

871 Joshua Haggard’s Daughter 20 

872 Taken at the Flood 20 

873 Asphodel 20 

877 The Doctor’s Wife 20 

878 Only a Clod 20 

879 Sir Jasper’s Tenant 20 

880 Lady’s Mile 20 

881 Birds of Prey 20 

882 Charlotte’s Inheritance 20 

8S3 Rupert Godwin 20 

886 Strangers and Pilgrims 20 

887 A Strange World .20 

8*88 Mount Royal 20 

889 Just As I Am 20 

81K) Dead Men’s Shoes 20 

892 HofltJiges to Fortune .20 

893 Fenton’s Quest 20 

884 The Cloven Foot 20 


2 


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1009 The Great Hesper 24 

BY R. D. BLACKMORE 

851 Lorna Doone, Part 1 20 

851 Lorna Doone, Part II. 20 

936 Maid of Sk^r 20 

955 Cradock Nowell, Part 1 20 

955 Cradock Nowell, Part II 20 

961 Springhaven 20 

1034 Mary Anerley 20 

1035 Alice Lorraine 20 

1036 Cristowell .20 

1037 Clara Vaughan 20 

101^ Crippa the Carrier 20 

1039 Remarkable History of Sir Thomas 

Upmore 20 

1040 Ererna ; or, My Father’s Sin. . ... 20 

BY LILLIE D. BLAKE 

105 Woman’s Place To-day 20 

597 Fettered for Life 25 

BY ANNIE BRADSHAW 

716 A Crimson Stain 20 

BY CHARLOTTE BREMER 

448 Life of Fredrika Bremer 20 

BY CHARLOTTE BRONTE 

74 Jane Eyre 20 

897 Shirley 20 

BY RHODA BROUGHTON 

23 Second Thoughts .20 

230 Belinda 20 

781 Betty’s Visions 15 

841 Dr. Cupid ,...20 

1022 Good-Bye, Sweetheart 20 

1023 Red as a Rose i« She 20 

1024 Cometh up as a Flower 20 

1025 Not Wisely but too Well 20 

1026 Nancy 20 

1C27 Joan 20 

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421 Aurora Leigh 20 

479 Poems 35 

BY ROBERT BROWNING 

552 Selections from Poetical Works 20 

BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 

443 Poems 20 

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN 

318 The New Abelard 20 

696 The Master of the Mine 10 

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200 The Pilgrim’s Progress ■ 20 

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430 Poems 20 

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113 More Words about the Bible 20 

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100 Nimport, 2 Parts, each 15 

102 Tritons, 2 Parts, each 16 


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BY EOSA NOUCHETE CAEEY 

C60 For Lilias 20 

911 Not Like other Girls 20 

912 Robert Orel’s Atonement 20 

959 Wee Wifie 20 

960 Wooed and Married 20 

BY WM. CAKLETON 

190 Willy Reilly 20 

fe20 Shane Fadh’s Wedding 10 

621 Larry McFarland’s Wake 10 

822 The Party Fight and Funeral 10 

823 The Midnight Maas 10 

824 PhilPurcel 10 

825 An Irish Oath 10 

82t) Going to Maynooth 10 

82*7 Phelim O’Toole’s Courtship 10 

828 Dominick, the Poor Scholar 10 

829 Neal Malone 10 

BY THOMAS CAKLYLE 

486 History of French Revolution, 2 

Parts, each 25 

494 Past and Present : 20 

5U0 The Diamond Necklace ; and Mira- 

beau 15 

603 Chartism 20 

6')8 Sartor Resartus 20 

614 Early Kings of Norway 20 

620 Jean Paul Friediich Richter 10 

622 Goethe, atid Miscellaneous Essays. . . lO 

625 Life of Heyne 15 

528 Voltaire and Novalis 15 

641 Heroes, and Hero-Worship 20 

646 Signs of the Times 15 

650 German Literature 15 

661 Portraits of John Knox 15 

671 Count Cagliostro, etc 15 

678 Frederick the Great, VoL I 20 

580 “ Vol. II 20 

691 “ VoLlII 20 

610 “ “ Vol. IV 20 

619 “ Vol. V 20 

622 “ “ Vol. VI 20 

626 “ “ Vol. VII 20 

628 “ “ VoL VIII 20 

630 Life of John Sterling 20 

633 Latter-Day Pamphlets 20 

6v36 Life of Schiller .20 

613 Oliver Cromwell, Vol. 1 25 

646 “ “ Vol. II 25 

(J49 “ ‘‘ Vol. Ill 25 

652 Characteristics and other Essays. . . 15 

6'56 Corn Law Rhymes and other Essays ,15 

658 Baillie the Covenanter and other Es- 
says 15 

661 Dr. Francia and other Essays 15 

BY LEWIS CAEKOLL 

480 Alice’s Adventures 20 

481 Through the Looking-Glass. 20 

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423 Cavendish Cai'd Essays . . 15 

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41T Don Quixote ... 30 

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119 Bourbon Lilies 20 


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Samuel Brohl & Co. . . 2<J 


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Her Mother’s Sin 20 

Dora Thorne, 20 

Beyond Pardon 20 

A Broken Wedding-Ring 20 

Repented at Leisure 20 

Sunshine and Roses 20 

The Earl's Atonement 20 

A Woman’s Temptation 20 

Love Works Wonders , ,20 

Fair but False 10 

Between Two Sins .10 

At War with Herself 15 

Hilda 10 

Her Martyrdom 20 

Lord Lynn’s Choice 10 

The Shadow of a Sin 10 

Wedded and Parted lO 

In Cupid’s Net 10 

Lady Darner’s Secret 20 

A Gilded Sin 10 

Between Two Loves 20 

For AnothePs Sin 20 

Romance of a Young Girl 20 

A Queen Amongst Women 10 

A Golden Dawn 10 

Like no Other Love 10 

A Bitter Atonement 20 

Evelyn’s Folly 20 

Set in Diamonds 20 

A Fair My ster 3 ' 20 

Thoms and Orange Blossoms 10 

Romance of a Black Veil 10 

Love's Warfare 10 

Madolin’s Lover 20 

From Out the Gloom 20 

Which Loved Him Best 10 

A True Magdalen 20 

The Sin of a Lifetime 20 

Prince Charlie’s Daughter 10 

A Golden Heart 10 

Wife in Name Only 20 

A Woman’s Error 20 

Marjorie 20 

A Wilful Maid 20 

Lady Castlemaine’s Divorce 20 

Claribel’s Love Story 20 

Thrown on the World 20 

Under a Shadow ..20 

A Struggle for a Ring 20 

Hilary’s Folly 20 

A Haunted Life 20 

A Woman’s Love Story 20 

A Woman’s War 20 

’Twixt Smile and Tear 20 

Lady Diana’s Pride 20 

Belle of Lynn 20 

Marjorie’s Fate 20 

Sweet Cymbeline 20 

Redeemed by Love 20 

The Squire’s Darling 10 

The Mystery of Colde Fell 20 

REV. JAS. FREEMAN CLARK 

Anti-Slavery Days 20 

BY S. T. COLERIDGE 

Poems 88 


242 

ia3 

277 

287 

420 

423 

458 

405 

474 

476 

658 

693 

651 

669 

689 

692 

694 

695 

700 

701 

718 

720 

727 

780 

733 

738 

739 

740 

744 

752 

764 

8U0 

801 

803 

804 

806 

807 

808 

809 

810 

811 

812 

•816 

896 

922 

923 

926 

928 

929 

930 

932 

933 

934 

969 

984 

985 

986 

988 

989 

1007 

1012 

1013 

BY 

167 

528 


3 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY, 


BY WILKIE COLLINS . 


8 The Moonstone, Part 1 10 

9 The Moonstone, Part II 10 

24 The New Magdalen 20 

87 Heart and Science 20 

418 “I Say No” 20 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices 15 

683 The Ghost’s Touch 10 

666 My Lady’s Money 10 

722 The Evil Genius 20 

839 The Guilty River 10 

957 The Dead Secret 20 

906 The Queen of Hearts 20 

1003 The Haunted Hotel 10 

BY HUGH CONWAY 

429 Called Back 15 

462 Dark Days 15 

612 Carriston’s Gift 10 

617 Paul Vargas: a Mystery 10 

631 A Family Affair 20 

667 Story of a Sculptor 10 

672 Slings and Arrows 10 

715 A Cardinal Sin 20 

746 Lit ing or Dead 20 

760 Somebody’s Story 10 

968 Bound by a Spell 20 

BY J. FENIMORE COOPEE 

6 The Last of the Mohicans 20 

63 The Spy 20 

S65 The Pathfinder 20 

S78 Homeward Bound 20 

441 Home as Found 20 

463 The Deerslayer 30 

467 The Prairie 20 

471 The Pioneer 25 

484 The Two Admirals 20 

488 The Water-Witch 20 

491 The Red Rover 20 

501 The Pilot 20 

606 Wing and Wing 20 

51 2 Wyandotte 20 

617 Heidenmauer 20 

619 The Headsman 20 

624 The Bravo 20 

627 Lionel Lincoln 20 

629 Wept of Wish-ton-Wish 20 

632 Afloat and Ashore 25 

639 Miles Wallingford 20 

543 The Monikins 20 

648 Mercedes of Castile 20 

653 The Sea Lions 20 

659 The Crater 20 

562 Oak Openings 20 

670 Satanstoe 20 

676 The Chain-Bearer 20 

587 Ways of the Hour 20 

601 Precaution 20 

603 Redskins 25 

611 Jack Tier 20 

BY KINAHAN COENWALLIS 

409 Adrift with a Vengeance 25 

BY TEE COUNTESS 

1028 A Passion-Flower 20 

1041 The World Between Them 20 

BY 6E0E6IANA M. CBAIK 

1006 A Daughter of the People 20 


BY R. CRISWELL 

850 Grandfather Lickthingle 24 

BY R. H. DANA, JR. 

464 Two Years before the Mast 20 

BY DANTE 

345 Dante’s Vision of Hell, Purgatory, 
and Paradise 20 

BY FLORA A. DARLING 

260 Mrs. Darling’s War Letters 23 

BY JOYCE DARRELL 

816 Winifred Power 20 

BY ALPHONSE DAUDET 

478 Tartarin of Tarascon 20 

604 Sidonie 20 

613 Jack 20 

615 The Little Good-for-Nothing ^ 

645 The Nabob .25 

BY REV. C. H. DAVIES, D.D. 

453 Mystic London 20 

BY THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S 

431 Life of Spenser 10 

BY C. DEBANS 

475 A Sheep in WoLPs Clothing 20 

BY REV. C. F. DEEMS, D.D. 

704 Evolution 20 

BY DANIEL DEFOE 

428 Robinson Crusoe 25 

BY THOS. DE QUINCEY 

20 The Spanish Nun 10 

BY CHARLES DICKENS 

1 0 Oliver T wist .20 

38 A Tale of Two Cities 20 

75 Child’s History of England 20 

91 Pickwick Papers, 2 Parts, each 20 

140 The Cricket on the Hearth 10 

144 Old Curiosity Shop, 2 Parte, each.. . 15 

150 Barnaby Rndge, 2 Parts, each 15 

158 David Copperfield, 2 Parte, each 20 

170 Hard Times 20 

192 Great Expectations 20 

201 Martin Chuzzlewit, 2 Parts, each. ...20 

210 American Notes 20 

219 Dombey and Son, 2 Parts, each 23 

223 Little Dorrit, 2 Parts, each. 20 

228 Our Mutual Friend, 2 Parte, each,.. 

231 Nicholas Nickleby, 2 Parts, each.*. . .20 

234 Pictures from Italy 10 

237 The Boy at Miigby 10 

244 Bleak House, 2 Parts, each 20 

246 Sketches of the Young Couples 10 

261 Master Humphrey’s Clock 10 

267 The Haunted House, etc 10 

270 The Mudfog Papers, etc 10 

273 Sketches by Boz 20 

274 A Christmas Carol, etc 15 

282 Uncommercial Traveller 20 

288 Somebody’s Luggage, etc 10 

293 The Battle of Life, etc 10 

297 Mystery of Edwin Drood 2(1 

298 Reprinted Pieces 20 

802 No Thoroughfare 13 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices., ... .10 


4 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY 


BY CARL DETLEF 

27 Irene ; or, The Lonely Manor. ..... 20 

BY PROF. DOWDEN 

404 Life of Southey 10 

BY JOHN DRYDEN 

498 Poems 30 

BY DO BOISGOBEY 

1018 Condemned Door 20 

BY THE “DOCHESS'' 

68 Portia 20 

76 Molly Bawn 20 

78 Phyllis 20 

86 Monica 10 

90 Mrs. Geoffrey 20 

92 Airy Fairy Lilian 20 

126 Loys, Lord Beresford 20 

132 Moonshine and Marguerites 10 

162 Faith and Unfaith 20 

168 Beauty’s Daughters 20 

284 Eossmoyne 20 

451 Doris 20 

477 A Week in Killarney lO 

530 In Durance Vile 10 

618 Dick’s Sweetheart ; or, O Tender 

Dolores” 20 

621 A Maiden all Forlorn 10 

624 A Passive Crime 10 

721 Lady Br.inksmere 20 

735 A Mental Struggle 20 

737 The Haunted Chamber 10 

792 Her Week's Amusement 10 

802 Lady Valvvorth's Diamonds 20 

BY LORD DUFFERIH 

95 Letters from High Latitudes 20 

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS 

761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part 1 20 

761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part II 20 

776 The Three Guardsmen 20 

786 Twenty Years After 20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part I. . . .20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part II.. .20 

885 Monte Cristo and His Wife 20 

891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Parti. ..20 

891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Part II... 20 

998 Beau Tancrede 20 

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, JR. 

992 Camille 10 

BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDS 

681 A Girton Girl 20 

BY GEORGE ELIOT 

56 Adam Bede, 2 Parts, each 15 

69 Amos Barton 10 

71 Silas Marner 10 

79 Roraola, 2 Parts, each 15 

149 JanePs Repentance 10 

151 Felix Holt 20 

174 Middlemarch, 2 Parts, each 20 

195 Daniel Deronda, 2 Parts, each 20 

202 Theophrastus Such 10 

205 The Spanish Gypsy.and other Poems20 

207 The Mill on the Floss, 2 Parts, each. 15 

208 Brother Jacob, etc 10 

374 Essays, and Leaves from a Note- 

Book 20 


BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS 


203 Disarmed 16 

663 The Flower of Doom 10 

1005 Next of Kin 20 

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

373 Essays 20 

ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY 

348 Bnnyan, by J. A, Froude 10 

407 Burke, by John Morley 10 

334 Burns, by Principal Shairp ..10 

347 Byron, by Professor Nichol .10 

413 Chaucer, by Prof. A. W. Ward 10 

424 Cowper, by Goldwin Smith 10 

377 Defoe, by William Minto 10 

383 Gibbon, by J. C. Morrison. 10 

225 Goldsmith, by William Black 10 

369 Hume, by Professor Huxley 10 

401 Johnson, by Leslie Stephen 10 

38<) Locke, by Thomas Fowler 10 

392 Milton, by Mark Pattison 10 

898 Pope, by Leslie Stephen 10 

364 Scott, by R. H. Hutton 10 

361 Shelley, by J. Symonds 10 

404 Southey, by Professor Dowdcn 10 

431 Spenser, by the Dean of St. Paul’s. . 10 

344 Thackeray, by Anthony Trollope. . .10 

410 Wordsworth, by F. Myers 10 

BY B. L. FARJEON 

243 Gautran; or, House of White Shad- 
ows 20 

654 Love’s Harvest 20 

856 Golden BeUs 10 

874 Nine of Hearts 20 

BY HARRIET FARLEY 

473 Christmas Stories ^ 20 

BY F. W. FARRAR, D.D. 

19 Seekers after God 20 

50 Early Days of Christianity, 2 Parts, 

each 20 

BY GEORGE MANNVILLE FENN 

1004 This Man’s Wife 20 

BY OCTAVE FEUILLET 

41 A Marriage in High Life 20 

987 Romance of a Poor Young Man .... 10 

BY FRIEDRICH, BARON DE LA 

MOTTE FOUQUE 

711 Undine 10 

BY MES. FOERESTER 

760 Fair Women 20 

818 Once Again 20 

843 My Lord and My Lady 20 

844 Dolores 20 

850 My Hero 20 

859 Viva 20 

860 Omnia Vanitas 10 

&)1 Diana Carew 20 

862 From Olympus to Hades. 20 

863 Rhona 20 

864 Roy and Viola ^ 

865 June 20 

866 Mignon 20 

867 A Young Man's Faney 20 


5 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY. 


BY THOMAS FOWLER 

880 Life of Locke 10 

BY FRANCESCA 

177 The Story of Ida 10 

BY R. E. FRANCILLON 

319 A Real Queen 20 

856 Golden Bells -....10 

BY ALBERT FRANKLYN 

122 Ameline dc Bourg 16 

BY L. VIRGINIA FRENCH 

k 85 My Rose-s 20 

* BY J. A. FROUDE 

348 Life of Banyan 10 

BY EMILE GABORIATT 

114 Monsieur Lecoq, 2 Parts, each 20 

116 The Lerouge Case 20 

120 Other People’s Money ^ 

129 In Peril of His Life 20 

138 The Gilded Clique 20 

155 Mystery of Orcival 20 

ICl Promise of Marriage 10 

258 File No. 113 20 

BY HENRY GEORGE 

52 Progress and Poverty 20 

Jik) Land Question 10 

393 Social Problems 20 

796 Property in Land 15 

BY CHARLES GIBBON 

57 The Golden Shaft 20 

BY J. W. VON GOETHE 

842 Goethe's Faust. 20 

843 Goethe’s Poems 20 

BY NIKOLAI V. GOGOL 

1016 Taras Bulla 20 

BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH 

, 51 Vicar of Wakefield 10 

|862 Plays and Poems 20 

BY MRS. GORE 

‘ 89 The Dean’s Daughter 20 

BY JAMES GRANT 

49 The Secret Despatch 20 

BY HENRI GREVILLE. 

ICOl Frankley 20 

BY CECIL GRIFFITH 

732 Victory Deane 20 

BY ARTHUR GRIFFITHS 

709 No. 99 10 

THE BROTHERS GRIMM 

221 Fairy Talcs, Illustrated 20 

BY LIEUT. J. W. GUNNISON 

440 History of the Mormons 16 

BY ERNST HAECKEL 

97 India and Ceylon 20 

BY MARION HARLAND 

107 nousckeeping and Uomemaking. ... 15 

6 


BY F. W. HACKLANDBR 

606 Forbidden Fruit 20 

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD 

813 King Solomon’s Mines 20 

848 She 20 

876 The Witch’s Head 20 

900 Jess 20 

941 Dawn 20 

1020 Allan Quatermain 20 

BY A. EGMONT HAKE 

371 The Story of Chinese Gordon 20 

BY LUDOVIC HALEVY 

16 L’ Abbe Constantin 20 

BY THOMAS HARDY 

43 Two on a Tower 20 

157 Romantic Adventures of a Milk- 
maid 10 

749 The Mayor of Casterbridge 20 

956 The Woodlanders 20 

964 Far from the Madding Crowd 20 

BY JOHN HARRISON AND M. 
COMPTON 

414 Over the Summer Sea 20 

BY J. B. HARWOOD 

269 One False, both Fair 20 

BY JOSEPH HATTON 

7 Clytie 20 

137 Cruel London 20 

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

370 Twice Told Tales 20 

376 Grandfather’s Chair 20 

BY MARY CECIL HAY 

466 Under the Will 10 

666 The Arundel Motto 20 

590 Old Myddleton’s Money 20 

787 A Wicked Girl 10 

971 Nora's Love Test 20 

972 The Squire’s Legacy 20 

973 Dorothy’s Venture 20 

974 My First Offer 10 

975 Back to t he Old Home 10 

976 For Her Dear Sake 20 

977 Hidden Perils 20 

978 Victor and Vanquished 20 

BY MRS. FELICIA HEMANS 

583 Poems 30 

BY DAVID J. HILL, LL.D. 

533 Principles and Fallacies of Social- 
ism 15 

BY M. L. HOLBROOK, M.D. 

366 Hygiene of the Brain 25 

BY MRS. M. A. HOLMES 

709 Woman against Woman 20 

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798 Prince of the Hundred Soups 10 

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937 My Sister the Actress 20 

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940 The Root of all Evil 20 

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950 Under the Lilies and Roses 20 

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952 Love’s Conflict, Part II 20 

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415 A Perilous Secret 20 

759 Foul Play 20 

773 Put Yourself in his Place 20 

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914 A Terrible Temptation 20 

915 Very Hard Cash 20 

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919 Readiana 10 

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408 The Brierfleld Tragedy 20 

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623 Unto this Last 10 

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637 “ A Joy Forever ” 15 

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642 The Two Paths 20 

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677 Aratra Pentelici .15 

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615 The Pirate 20 

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569 The Abbot 20 

675 Quentin Durward 20 

581 The Talisman 20 

686 St. Ronan’s Well 20 

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607 Chronicles of the Canongate 15 

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620 Guy Mannering 20 

625 Kenilworth 25 

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632 Rob Roy 20 

635 The Betrothed 20 

638 Fair Maid of Perth 20 

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677 Vasconselos 30 

680 Confession 30 

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291 Famous Funny Fellows 20 

323 Life of Paul Jones 20 

332 Every-Day Cook-Book 20 

340 Clayton’s Rangers 20 

885 Swiss Family Robinson 20 

386 Childhood of the World 10 

397 Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. . . .25 
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433 Wrecks in the Sea of Life 20 

434 Typhaines Abbey 25 

483 The Child Hunters 15 

857 A Wilful Young Woman 20 

966 The Story of Our Mess 20 

967 The Three Bummers 20 

1019 Soeur Louise .... .20 


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DU ATTEST 

1002 To Call Her Mine, by W. Besant.20 

1003 The Haunted Hotel, by W. Collins.lO 

1004 This Man's Wile, by G. M. Fenn..20 

1005 Next of Kin Wanted, by M. Beth- 

am-Ed wards 20 

1006 A Daughter of the People, by 

Georgiana M. Craik 20 

1007 Eedeemed by Love, by B. M. Clay.20 

1008 Marrying and Giving in Marriage, 

by Mrs. Molesworth . . 10 

1009 The Great Hesper, by F. Barrett..20 

1010 Mrs. Gregory, by Agnes Kay 20 

1011 Pirates of the Prairies, by Aimard.lO 

1012 The Squire’s Darling, by Clay... 10 

1013 The Mystery of Colde Fell, by Clay.20 

1014 The Daughter of an Empress, by 

Louisa Mdhlbach 30 

101 5 Pemberton, by Henry Peterson... 30 

1016 Taras Bulba, by Nikolai V. Gogol.. 20 

1017 A Vital Guestion, by Nikolai G. 

Tchernufshevsky 30 

1018 The Condemned Door, by F. du 

Boisgobey 20 

1019 Soeur Louise (Louise de Bruneval)20 

1020 Allan Quatermain, by Haggard. . . 20 

1021 The Trapper’s Daughter, by 

Gustave Airaard 10 

1022 Good-Bye, Sweetheart, by Rhoda 

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1023 Red as a Rose is She, by Rhoda 

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1024 Cometh up as a Flower, by Rhoda 

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1025 Not Wisely, But Too Well, by 

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1026 Nancy, by Rhoda Broughton 20 

1027 Joan, by Rhoda Broughton 20 

1028 A Near Relation, by Coleridge 20 

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1030 On Her Wedding Morn, by Clay. . 10 
103-1 The Shattered Idol, by B. M. Clay. 10 

1032 The Tiger Slayer, by G. Aimard..l0 

1033 Letty Leigh, by Bertha M, Clay. ..10 

1034 Mary Anerley,by R. D. Blackmore.20 

1035 Alice Lorraine, by Blackmore 20 

1036 Christo well, byR. D. Blackmore.. 20 

1037 Clara Vaughan, by Blackmore 20 

1038 Cripps, the Carrier, by Blackmore.20 

1039 Remarkable Historyof Sir Thomas 

Upmore, by R. D. Blackmore. . .20 

1040 Erema; or. My Father’s Sin, by 

R. D. Blackmore 20 

1041 The Mystery of the Holly Tree, by 

Bertha M. Clay 10 

1042 The Earl's Error, by B. M. Clay. .10 

1043 Arnold's Promise, by B. M. Clay.. 10 

1044 Forging the Fetters,by Alexander.lO 

1045 The Trappers of Arkansas, by 

Gustave Aimard 10 


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1046 Cornin’ thro’ the Rye, by Mathers. 20 

1047 Sam’s Sweetheart, by Mathers. . . .20 

1048 Story of a Sin, by H. B. Mathers.. 20 

1049 Cherry Ripe, by H. B Mathers.. .20 

1050 My Lady Green Sleeves, Mathers.. 20 

1051 An Unnatural Bondage, by Clay. . 10 

1052 Border Rifles, by Gustave Aimard.lO 

1053 Gold Elsie, by E. Marlitt 20 

1054 Goethe and Schiller, by Muhlbach.30 
10.55 Mr. Smith, by L. B. Walford. . . .20 
1056 The Historyof a Week,by Walford.lO 


1057 The Baby’s Grandmother, by L. B. 

Walford 20 

1058 Troublesome Daughters, by L. B. 

Walford ... 20 

1059 Cousins, by L. B. Walford 20 


1060 Tbe Bag of Diamonds, by Fenn. .20 
1001 Red Spider, by S. Baring-Gould. 20 

1062 Dick's Wandering, by J. Sturgis..20 

1063 The Freebooters, by G. Aimard... 10 

1064 The Duke’s Secret, B. M. Clay.20 

1065 A Modem Circe, by The Duchess . 20 

1066 An American Journey,by Avellng.30 

1067 Geoffrey Moncton, by S. Moodie..30 

1068 Flora Lyndsay, by S. Moodie 20 

1069 The White Scalper, by G. Aimard.lO 

1070 Confessions of an English Opium 

Eater, by Thomas de Quincey.. .20 

1071 Guide of the Desert, by Aim aid.. 10 

1072 “The Duchess,” by The Duchess 20 


1073 Scheherazade, by F. Warden 20 

1074 Roughing it in the Bush, by Su- 

sanna Moodie 20 


1075 The Insurgent Chief, by Aimard. .10 

1076 Life in the Backwoods, byMoodie.20 

1077 Jim the Parson, by E. B. Benjamin. 20 

1078 Tax the Area, by Kemper Bocock. 20 

1079 The Flying Horseman, by Aimard.lO 

1080 The Blue Veil ; or, The Crime of 

the Tower, by F. du Boisgobey. .20 

1081 Last of the Ancas, by Aimard 10 

1082 Strange Adventures of Lucy 

Smith, by F. C. Philips 20 

1083 As in a Looking Glass, Ijy Philips.20 

1084 The Dean and his Daughter, by 

F. C. Philips 20 

1085 Life in the Clearings, by Moodie . . 20 

1086 Missouri OutlaAvs, by .^mard 10 

1087 The Frozen Pirate, by Russell. . .20 

1088 Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 

Pt. I, by Goethe, translated by 

Carlyle 20 

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 
Pt. H, by Goethe, translated by 
Carlyle 20 

1089 Prairie Flower, by Aimard 10 

1090 Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, by 

Goethe, translated by Carlyle 20 

1091 Queen Hortense, by L. Muhlbach . 30 


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The Frozen Pirate 



W. CLARK RUSSELL 

'V 

AUTHOR OF “A SEA QUEEN,” “THE GOLDEN HOPE,” ETC., ETC. 






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CHAPTER I.^ 


T HE 3TOR 


— The“tHnghTT5g^iyraT)Rvas a 


riighT^ship, as sailors ternTa-^*^ 


vessel that stands high upon the water, having discharged 
her cargo at Callao, from which port we were proceed- 
ing in ballast to Cape Town, South Africa, there to call 
for orders. Our run to within a few parallels of the 
latitude of the Horn had been extremely pleasant ; the 
proverbial mildness of the Pacific Ocean was in the mellow 
sweetness of the wind, and in the gentle undulations of 
the silver-laced swell ; but scarce had we passed the height 
of forty-nine degrees when the weather grew sullen and 
dark, a heavy bank of clouds of a livid hue rose in the 
northeast, and the wind came and went in small guns, the 
gusts venting themselves in dreary moans, insomuch that 
our oldest hands confessed they had never heard blasts 
more portentous. 

The gale came on, with some lightning and several 
claps of thunder and heavy rain. Though it vras but two 
o’clock in the afternoon the air was so dusky that the men 
had to feel for the ropes ; and when the first of the tempest 
stormed down upon us the appearance of the sea was un- 
commonly terrible, being swept and mangled into boiling 
froth in the northeast quarter, while all about us and in the 
southwest it lay in a sort of swollen huddle of shadows, 
glooming into the darkness of the sky without offering the 
smallest glimpse of the horizon. 

In a few minutes the hurricane struck us. We had 
bared the brig down to the close-reefed main-topsail ; yet, 
though we were dead before the outfly, its first blow rent 
the fragment of sail as if it were formed of smoke, and in 


4 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


an instant it disappeared, flashing over the bows like a scat- 
tering of torn paper, leaving nothing but the bolt-ropes 
behind. The bursting of the topsail was like the explosion 
of a large cannon. In a breath the brig was smothered 
with froth torn up in huge clouds, and hurled over and 
ahead of her in vast quivering bodies that filled the wind 
with a dismal twilight of their own, in which nothing was 
visible but their terrific speeding. Through these slinging, 
soft, and singing masses of spume drove the rain in hori- 
zontal steel-like lines, which gleamed in the lightning- 
stroke as though indeed they were barbed weapons of 
bright metal, darted by armies of invisible spirits raving 
out their war-cries as they chased us. 

The storm made a loud thunder in the sky, and this 
tremendous utterance dominated without subduing the 
many screaming, hissing, shrieking, and hooting noises 
raised in the rigging and about the decks, and the wild, 
seething, weltering sound of the sea, maddened by the gale 
and struggling in its enormous passion under the first 
choking and iron grip of the hurricane’s hand. 

I had used the ocean for above ten years but never had 
I encountered anything suddener or fiercer in the form of 
weather than this. Though the wind blew from the tropics, 
it was as cruel in bitterness as frost. Yet there was neither 
snow nor hail, only rain that seemed to pass like a knife 
through the head if you showed your face to it for a sec- 
ond. It was necessary to bring the brig to the wind before 
the sea rose. The helm was put down, and without a rag of 
canvas on her she came round ; but when she brought the 
hurricane fair abeam, I thought it was all over with us. 
She lay down to it until her bulwarks were under water, 
and the sheer-poles in the rigging above the rail hidden in 
the smother. 

In this posture she hung so long that Captain Rosy, the 
master* bawled to me to tell the carpenter to stand by to 
cut away the topmast rigging. But the Laughing Mary, as 
the brig was called, was a buoyant ship and lightly sparred, 
and presently bringing the sea on the bow, through 
our seizing a small tarpaulin in the weather lower main- 
shrouds, she erected her masts afresh, like some sentient 
creature pricking its ears for the affray, and with that 
showed herself game and made indifferently good weather 
of it. 

But though the first rage of the storm was terrible 
enough, its fierceness did not come to its height till about 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


5 


one o’clock in the middle watch. Long before then the 
sea had grown mountainous, and the dance of our eggshell 
of a brig upon it was sickening and affrighting ; tlie 
heads of the Andean peaks of black water looking tall 
enough to brush the lowering soot of the heavens with 
the blue and yellow phosphoric fires, whicli sparkled 
ghastly amid the bursting froth. Bodies of foam flew like 
the flashings of pale sheet-lightning through our rigging 
and over us, and a dreadful roaring of mighty surges in 
mad career, and battling as they ran, rose out of the- sea 
to deepen yet the thunderous bellowing of the hurricane 
on high. 

No man could show himself on deck and preserve his 
life. Between the rails it was waist high, and this 
water, converted by the motions of the brig into a wild 
torrent, had its volume perpetually maintained by ton- 
loads of sea falling in dull and pounding crashes over the 
bows on to the forecastle. There was nothing to be done 
but secure the helm and await the issue below ; for, if we 
were to be drowned, it would make a more easy foundering 
to go down dry and warm in the cabin, than to perish half- 
frozen and already nearly strangled by the bitter cold and 
flooded tempest on deck. 

There was Captain Rosy ; there was myself, by name 
Paul Rodney, mate of the brig ; and there were the re- 
maining seven of a crew, including the carpenter. We 
sat in the cabin, one of us from time to time clawing his 
way up the ladder to peer through the companion, and vve 
looked at one another with the melancholy of malefactors 
waiting to be called from their cells for their last jaunt to 
Tyburn. 

“ May God have mercy upon us ! ” cries the carpenter. 

There must be an earthquake inside this storms Some- 
thing more than wind is going to the making of these 
seas. Hear that, now ! Naught less than a forty-foot 
chuck-up could ha’ ended in that souse, mates.” 

“A man can die but once,” says Captain Rosy, “and 
he’ll not perish the quicker for looking at his end with a 
stout heart ; ” and with that he put his hand into the locker 
on which he had been sitting and pulled out a jar of whis- 
key, which, after putting his lips to it and keeping them 
glued there whilst you could have counted twenty, he 
handed it to me, and so it went around, coming back to 
him empty. 


6 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


and it was not long afterward that it would visit me as 
such a vision of comfort, that I would with a grateful heart 
have accepted it, with tenfold darker conditions of danger, 
had it been possible to exchange my situation for it. A 
lantern hung from a beam, and swung violently to the 
rolling and pitching of the brig. The alternations of its 
light put twenty different meanings, one after another, 
into the settled, dismal, and rueful expressions in the 
faces of my companions. We were clad in warm clothes, 
and the steam rose from the damp in our coats and 
trousers like vapor from wet straw. The drink mottled 
some of our faces, but the spirituous tincture only im- 
parted a quality of irony to the melancholy of our visages, 
as if our mournfulness were not wholly sincere, when, God 
knows, our hearts were taken up counting the minutes 
when we should find ourselves bursting for want of breath 
under water. 

Thus it continued till daybreak, all of which time we 
strove to encourage one another as best we could, some- 
times with words, sometimes with putting the bottle about. 
It was impossible for any of us, at any moment, to show 
more than our noses above the companion ; and even at 
that you needed the utmost caution, for the decks being 
full of water it was necessary to await the lurch of the 
vessel before moving the slide, or cover of the companion, 
else you stood to drown the cabin. 

Being exceedingly anxious, for the brig lay unwatched, 
I looked forth on one occasion longer than the others 
chose to venture, and beheld the most extravagant scene 
of raging commotion it could enter the brain of man to 
imagine. The night was as black as the bottom of a well ; 
but the prodigious swelling and flinging of white waters 
hove a faintness upon the air that was in its way a dim 
light, by which it was just possible to distinguish the 
reeling masts to the height of the tops, and to observe the 
figure of the brig springing black and trembling out of the 
head of a surge that had broken over and smothered her 
as in a caldron, and to note the shapes of the nearer liquid 
acclivities as they bore down upon our weather bow, catch- 
ing the brig fair under the bluff, and so sloping her that 
she seemed to stand end on, and so heeling her that the 
sea would wash to the height of the main-hatch. Indeed, 
had she been loaded, and, therefore, deep, she could not 
have lived an hour in that hollow and frightful ocean ; but 
having nothing in her but ballast, she was like a bladder, 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


7 


and swung up the surges and blew away to leeward like 
an empty cask. 

When the dawn broke, something of its midnight fury 
went out of the gale. The carpenter made shift to sound 
the well, and to our great satisfaction found but little 
water, only as much as we had a right to suppose she 
would take in above. But it was impossible to stand at 
the pumps, so we returned to the cabin and brewed some 
cold punch, and did what we could to keep our spirits 
hearty. By noon the wind had weakened, but the sea 
still ran very heavily, and the sky was uncommonly thick 
with piles of dusky-yellowish, hurrying clouds ; and though 
we could fairly reckon upon our position, the atmosphere 
was so nipping that it was difficult to persuade ourselves 
that Cape Horn was not close aboard. 

We could now work the pumps, and a short spell freed 
the brig. We got up a new maintopsail and bent it, and, 
setting the reefed foresail, put the vessel before the wind, 
and away she ran, chased by the swollen seas. Thus we 
continued till by dead reckoning we calculated that we 
were about thirty leagues south of the parallel of the 
Horn, and in longitude eighty-seven degrees west. We 
then boarded our larboard tack and brought the brig as 
close to the wind as it was proper to lay her for a progress 
that should not be wholly leeway ; but, four hburs after we 
had handled the braces, the gale, that had not veered two 
points since it first canie on to blow, stormed up again 
into its first fury, and the morning of July i, anno i8oi, 
found the Laughing Mary passionately laboring in the 
midst of an enraged Cape-Horn sea, her jibboom and fore- 
top-gallant mast gone,' her ballast shifted, so that her post- 
ure even in a calm would have exhibited her with her 
starboard channels under, and her decks swept by enor- 
mous surges, which, fetching her larboard bilge dreadful 
blows, thundered in mighty green masses over her. 


CHAPTER H. 

THE ICEBERG. 

The loss of the spars I have named was no great matter, 
nor were we to be intimidated by such weather as was to 
be expected off Cape Horn. For what sailor entering 


8 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


this icy and tempestuous tract of waters but knows that 
here he must expect to find Nature in her most violent 
moods, crueller and more unreckonable than a mad wo- 
man, who one moment looks with a silent, sinister sullen- 
ness upon you, and the next is shrieking with devilish 
laughter as she makes as if to spring upon you. 

But there was an inveteracy in the gale which had 
driven us down to this port that bore heavily upon our 
spirits. It was impossible to trim the ballast. We dared 
not veer so as to bring the ship on the other tack. And 
the slope of the decks, added to the fierce, wild motions 
of the fabric, made our situation as unendurable as that 
of one who should be confined in a cask and sent rolling 
down hill. It was impossible to light a fire, and we could 
not therefore dress our food or obtain a warm drink. The 
cold was beyond language severe. The rigging was 
glazed with ice, and great pendants of the silvery brilliance 
of crystal hung from the yards, bowsprit, and catheads, 
while the sails were frozen to the hardness of granite, 
and lay like sheets of iron rolled up in gaskets of steel. 
We had no means of drying our clothes, nor were we able 
to move so as by exercise we might keep ourselves warm. 
Never once did the sun shine to give us the encourage- 
ment of his glorious beams. Hour after hour found us 
amid the same distracting scene : the tall, olive-colored 
seas hurling out their rage in foam as they roared toward 
us in ranges of dissolving cliffs ; the wind screaming and 
whistling through our gray and frozen rigging ; the water 
washing in floods about our decks, with the ends of the 
running gear snaking about in the torrent, and the live 
stock lying drowned and stiff in their coops and pen near 
the caboose. 

With helm lashed and yards pointed to the wind thus 
we lay, thus we drifted, steadily trending, with the send 
of each giant surge, farther and deeper into the icy re- 
gions of the southwest — helpless, foreboding, disconso- 
late. 

It was the night of the fourth day of the month. The 
crew were forward in the forecastle, and I knew not if any 
man was on deck saving myself. In truth there was no 
place in which a watch could be kept, if it were not in the 
companion hatch. Such was the violence with which the 
seas broke over the brig that it was at the risk of his life 
a man crawled the distance betwixt the forecastle and the 
quarter-deck. It had been as thick as mud all day, and 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


9 


now upon this flying gloom of haze, sleet, and spray had 
descended the blackness of the night. 

I stood in the companion as in a sentry-box, witli my 
eyes just above the cover. Nothing was to be seen but 
sheets of ghostly white water sweeping up in the black- 
ness on the vessel’s lee, or breaking and boiling to wind- 
ward. It was sheer blind chaos to the sight, and you 
might have supposed that the brig was in tlie midst of 
some enormous vaporous turmoil, so illusive and indefina- 
ble were the shadows of the storm-tormented night — one 
block of blackness melting in another, with sometimes an 
extraordinary faintness of light speeding along the dark 
sky like to the dim reflection of a lantern flinging its 
radiance from afar, which no doubt must have been the 
reflection of some particularly bright and extensive bed of 
foam upon a sooty belly on high, hanging lower than the 
other clouds. I say you might have thought yourself in 
the midst of some hellish conflict of vapor, but for the 
substantial thunder of the surges upon the vessel, and the 
shriek of the slung masses of water flying like cannon-balls 
between the masts. 

After a long and eager look round into the obscurity, 
semilucent with froth, I went below for a mouthful of 
spirits and a bite of supper, the hour being eight bells in 
the second dog-watch as we say, that is, eight o’clock in 
the evening. The captain and carpenter were in the 
cabin. Upon the swing-tray over the table were a piece 
of corned beef, some biscuit, and a bottle of Hollands. 

“Nothing to be seen, I suppose, Rodney?” says the 
captain. 

“ Nothing,” I answered. “ She looks well up, and that’s 
all that can be said.” 

“ I’ve been hove to under bare poles more than once in 
my time,” said the carpenter, “ but never through so long 
a stretch. I doubt if you’ll find many vessels to look up 
to it as this here Laughing Mary does.” 

“The loss of hamper forward will make her the more 
Weatherly,” says Captain Rosy. “ But we’re in an ugly 
part of "the globe. When bad sailors die thev’re sent 
here, I reckon. The worst nautical sinner caffit^e hove 
to long off the Horn without coming out with a purged 
soul. He must start afresh to deserve further punish- 
ment.” 

“ Well, here’s a breeze that can’t go on blowing much 
longer,” cries the carpenter. “The place it comes from 


lO 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


must give out soon, unless a new trade wind’s got fixed 
into a whole gale for this here ocean.” 

“What southing do you allow our drift will be giving 
us, Captain ? ” I asked, munching a piece of beef. 

“All four mile an hour,” he answered. “If this goes 
on I shall look to make some discoveries. The Antarctic 
circle won’t be far off presently, and since you’re a scholar, 
Rodney, I’ll leave you to describe what’s inside of it, 
though, boil me, if I don’t have the naming of the tallest 
land ; for, d’ye see. I’ve a mind to be known after I’m 
dead, and there’s nothing like your signature on a moun- 
tain to be remembered by.” 

He grinned and put his hand out for the bottle, and 
after a pull passed it to the carpenter, I guessed by his 
jocosity that he had already been making somewhat free ; 
for though I love a bold face put upon a difficulty, ours 
was a situation in which only a tipsy man could find food 
for merriment. 

At this instant we were startled by a wild and fearful 
shout on deck. It sounded high above the sweeping and 
seething of the wind and the hissing of the lashed waters, 
and it penetrated the planks with a note that gave it an 
inexpressible character of anguish. 

“ A man washed overboard ! ” bawled the carpenter, 
springing to his feet. 

“No,” cried I, for my younger and shrewder ear had 
caught a note in the cry that persuaded me it was not as 
the carpenter said ; and in an instant the three of us 
jumped up the ladder and gained the deck. 

The moment I was in the gale the affrighted cry ran 
along the wind from some man forward : For Goa's sake^ 
tumble up before we are upon it ! ” 

“What do you see ?” I roared, sending my voice trum- 
pet-fashion, through my hands ; for as to my own and the 
sight of Captain Rosy and the carpenter, why it was like 
being struck blind to come on a sudden out of the lighted 
cabin into the dark night. 

Any reply that might have been attempted was choked 
^out by the dive of the brig’s head into a sea, which furi- 
ously flooded her forecastle and came washing aft like 
milk in the darkness till it was up to our knees. 

“ See there,” suddenly roared the carpenter. 

“Where, man, where ?” bawled the captain. 

But in this brief time my sight had grown used to the 
night, and I saw the object before the carpenter could an- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


n 


swer. It lay on our lee beam, but how far off no one 
could have told in that black thickness. It stood against 
the darkness and hung out a dim complexion of light, or 
rather of pallidness, that was not light — not to be de- 
scribed by the pen. It was like a small hill of snow, and 
looked as snow does or the foam of the sea in darkness, 
and it came and went with our soaring and sinking. 

“ Ice ! ” I shouted to the captain. 

“I see it,” he answered in a voice that satisfied me the 
consternation he was under had settled the fumes of the 
spirits out of his head. “ We must drive her clear at all 
risks.” 

There was no need to call the men. To the second cry 
that had been raised by one among them who had come 
out of the forecastle and seen the berg, they had tumbled 
up as sailors will when they jump for their lives ; and now 
they came staggering, splashing, crawling aft to us, for 
the lamp in the cabin made a sheen in the companion 
hatch, and they could see us as we stood there. 

“Men,” cried Captain Rosy, “yonder’s a gravestone for 
our carcasses if we are not lively ! Cast the helm adrift ! ” 
[We steered by a tiller.] “ Two hands stand by it. For- 
ward, some of ye, and loose the stay-foresail, and show the 
head of it.” 

The fellows hung in the wind. I could not wonder. 
The bowsprit had been sprung when the jibboom was 
wrenched from the cap by the fall of the top-gallant mast ; 
it still had to bear the weight of the heavy spritsail yard, 
and the drag of the stay-sail might carry the spar over- 
board with the men upon it. Yet it was our best chance ; 
the one sail most speedily released and hoisted, the one 
that would pay the brig’s head off quickest, and the only 
fragment that promised to stand. 

“Jump,” roared the captain, in a passion of hurry-. 
“ Great thunder ! ’Tis close aboard ! You’ll leave me no 
sea-room for veering if you delay an instant.” 

“ Follow me who will ! ” I cried out ; “ andothers stand 
by ready to hoist away.” 

Thus speaking — for there seemed to my mind a surer 
promise of death in hesitation at this supreme moment 
than in twenty such risks as laying out on the bowsprit 
signified— I made for the lee of the weather bulwarks, and 
blindly hauled myself forward by sucii pins and gear as 
came to my hands. A man might spend his life on the 
ocean and never hkve to deal with such a passage as this. 


12 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


It was not the bitter cold only, though perhaps of its full 
fierceness the wildness of my feelings did not suffer me to 
be sensible ; it was the pouring of volumes of water upon 
me from over the rail, often tumbling upon my head with 
such weight as nearly to beat the breath out of my body 
and sink me to the deck ; it was the frenzy excited in me 
by the tremendous obligation of despatch and my retard- 
ment by the washing seas, the violent motions of the brig, 
the encumbrance of gear and deck furniture adrift and 
sweeping here and there, and the sense that the vessel 
might be grinding her bows against the iceberg before I 
should be able to reach the bowsprit. All this it was that 
filled me with a kind of madness, by the sheer force of 
which alone I was enabled to reach the forecastle ; for had 
I gone to my duty coldly, without agitation of spirits, my 
heart must have failed me before I had measured half the 
length of the brig. 

I got on to the bowsprit nearly stifled by the showering 
of the seas, holding an open knife between my teeth, half 
dazed by the prodigious motion of the light brig, which, 
at this extreme end of her, was to be felt to the full height 
of its extravagance. At every plunge I expected to be 
buried, and every moment I was prepared to be torn from 
my hold. It was a fearful time ; the falling off of the 
brig into the trough — and never was I in a hollower and 
more swelling sea — her falling off, I say, in the act of veer- 
ing might end us out of hand by the rolling of a surge over 
us big enough to crush the vessel down fathoms out of 
sight ; and then there was that horrible heap of faint white- 
ness leaping out of the dense blackness of the sky, gather- 
ing a more visible sharpness of outline with every liquid 
heave that forked us high into the flying night with 
shrieking rigging and boiling decks. 

Commending myself to God, for I was now to let go 
with my hands, I pulled the knife from my teeth, and feel- 
ing for the gaskets or lines which bound the sail to the 
spar, I cut and hacked as fast as I could ply my arms. In 
a flash the gale, whipping into a liberated fold of the can- 
vas, blew the whole sail out ; the bowsprit reeled and quiv- 
ered under me ; I danced off it with incredible despatch, 
shouting to the men to hoist away. The head of the stay- 
sail mounted in thunder, and the slatting of its folds and 
the thrashing of its sheet was like the rattling of heavy 
field-pieces whisked at full gallop over a stony road. 

“ High enough ! ” I bawled, guessing enough was shown, 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


13 


for I could not see. “ Get a drag upon the sheet, lads, and 
then aft with you^for your lives ! ” 

Scarce had 1 let forth my breath in this cry when I heard 
the blast as of a gun, and knew by that the sail was gone ; 
an instant after wash came a mountainous sea sheer over 
the weather bulwarks, fair betwixt the fore and main rig- 
ging ; but happily, standing near the fore shrouds, I was 
holding on with both hands to the topsail halliards while 
calling to the men, so that being under the rail, which 
broke the blow of the sea, and holding on too, no mischief 
befell me, only that for about twenty seconds I stood in a 
horrible fury and smother of the frothing water, hearing 
nothing, seeing nothing, with every faculty in me so 
numbed and dulled by the wet, cold, and horror of our 
situation, that I know not whether in that space of time I 
was in the least degree sensible of what had happened or 
what might befall. 

The water leaving the deck, I rallied, though half- 
drowned, and staggered aft, and found the helm deserted, 
nor could I see any signs of my companions. I rushed to 
the tiller, and putting my whole weight and force to it, 
drove it up to windward and secured it by a turn of its own 
rope ; for ice or no ice — and for the moment I was so 
blinded by the wet that I could not see the berg-- my mad- 
ness now was to get the brig before the sea and out of the 
trough, advised by every instinct in me that such another 
surge as that which rolled over her must send her to the 
bottom in less time than it would take a man to crv “ O 
God ! ” 

A figure came out of the blackness on the lee side of 
the deck. 

“ Who is that ?” said he. It was Captain Rosy. 

I answered. 

“What, Rodney! alive? ’’cried he. “I think I have 
been struck insensible.” 

Two more figures came crawling aft. Then two more. 
They were the carpenter and three seamen. 

I cried out, “ Who was at the helm when that sea was 
shipped ?” 

A man answered, “Me, Thomas Jobling.” 

“Where’s your mate?’’ I asked; and it seemed to me 
that I was the only man who had his senses full just 
then. 

“ He was washed forward along with me,” he replied. 

Now a fifth man joined us, but before I could question 


14 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


him as to the others, the captain, with a scream like an 
epileptic’s cry, shrieked, “ It’s all over with us ! We are 
upon it.” 

I looked and perceived the iceberg to be within a mus- 
ket shot, whence it was clear that it had been closer to us 
when first sighted than the blackness of night would 
siiffer us to distinguish. In a time like this at sea events 
throng so fast they come in a heap, and even if the in- 
telligence were not confused by the uproar and peril, 
if indeed it were as placid as in any time of perfect se- 
curity, it could not possibly take note of one-tenth that 
’happens. 

I confess that, for my part, I was very nearly paralyzed 
by the nearness of the iceberg, and by the cry of the cap- 
tain, and by the perception that there was nothing to be 
done. That which I best recollect is the appearance of 
the mass of ice lying solidly, like a little island, upon the 
seas which roared in creaming waters about it. Every 
blow of the black and arching surge was reverberated in 
a dull hollow tremble back to the ear through the hissing 
flight of the gale. The frozen body was not taller than 
our mastheads, yet it showed like a mountain hanging 
over us as the brig was flung swirling into the deep 
Pacific hollow, leaving us staring upward out of the in- 
stant’s stagnation of the trough with lips set breathlessly 
and with dying eyes. It put a kind of film of faint light 
outside the lines of its own shape, and this served to mag- 
nify it, and it showed spectrally in the darkness as though 
it reflected some visionary light that came neither from 
the sea nor the sky. These points I recollect ; likewise 
the maddening and maddened motion of our vessel, slid- 
ing toward it down one midnight declevity to another. 

All other features were swallowed up in the agony of 
the time. One monstrous swing the brig gave, like to 
some doomed creature’s last delirious struggle ; the bow- 
sprit caught the ice and snapped with the noise of a great 
tree crackling in fire. I could hear the masts breaking 
overhead— the crash and blows of spars and yards torn 
down and striking the hull ; above all the grating of the 
vessel, that was now head on to the sea and swept bv the 
billows, broadside on, along the sharp and murderous pro- 
jections. Two monster seas tumbled over the bows, 
floated me off my legs, and dashed me against the tiller, 
to which I clung. I heard no cries. I regained my feet, 
clinging with a death-grip to the tiller, and, seeing no one 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 15 

near me, tried to holloa, to know if any man were living, 
but could not make my voice sound. 

The fearful grating noise ceased on a sudden and the 
faintness of the berg loomed upon the starboard bow. We 
had been hurled clear of it and were to leeward ; but what 
was our condition ? I tried to shout again, but to no pur- 
pose ; and was in the act of quitting the tiller to go for- 
ward when I was struck over the brows by something 
from aloft — a block, as I believe — and fell senseless upon 
the deck. 


CHAPTER III. 

I LOSE MY COxMPANIONS. 

I lay for a long while insensible, and that I should have 
recovered my mind instead of dying in that swoon I must 
ever account as the greatest wonder of a life that has not 
been wanting in the marvellous. I had no sooner sat up 
than all that had happened and my present situation in- 
stantly came to me. My hair was stiff with ice ; there was 
no more feeling in my hands than had they been of stone ; 
my clothes weighed on me like a suit of armor, so inflexi- 
bly liard were they frozen. Yet I got upon my legs, and 
found that I could stand and walk, and that life flowed 
warm in my veins, for all that I had been lying motionless 
for an hour or more, laved by water that would have be- 
come ice had it been still. 

It was intensely dark ; the binnacle lamp was extin- 
guished, and the light in the cabin burned too dimly to 
throw the faintest color upon the hatchway. One thing I 
quickly noticed, that the gale had broken and blew no 
more than a fresh breeze. The sea still ran very high, but 
tliough every surge continued to hurl its head of snow, 
and the heavens resembled ink from contrast with the 
passage, as it seemed, close under them of these pallid 
bodies, there was less spite in its wash, less fury in its 
blow. The multitudinous roaring of the weltering black- 
ness had sobered into a hard and sullen growling, a sound 
as of thunder among mountains and heard in a valley. 

The brig pitched and rolled heavily. Much of the buoy- 
ancy of her earlier dance was gone out of her. Neverthe- 
less I could not persuade myself that this sluggishness 
was altogether due to the water she had taken in. It was 


1 5 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 

wonderful, however, that she should still be afloat. No 
man could have heard the rending and grating of her side 
against the ice without supposing that every plank in it 
was being torn out. 

Finding that I had the use of my voice, I halloaed as 
loudly as I could, but no human note responded. Three 
or four times I shouted, giving some of the people their 
names, but in vain. Father of mercy ! I thought, what 
has come to pass ? Is it possible that all my companions 
have been washed overboard ? Certainly, five men at least 
were living before we found the ice. And again I cried 
out, “ Is there anyone alive ? ” looking wildly along the 
black decks, and putting so much force into my voice 
with the consternation that the thought of my being alone 
raised in me, that I had like to have burst a blood-vessel. 

My loneliness was more terrible to me than any other 
condition of my situation. It was dreadful to be standing 
nearly dead with cold, in utter darkness, upon the flooded 
decks of a hull wallowing miserably amid the black hol- 
lows and eager-foaming peaks of the laboring sea, con- 
vinced that she was slowly filling, and that at any moment 
she might go down with me ; it was dreadful, I say, to be 
thus placed, and to feel that I was in the heart of the 
rudest, most desolate space of sea in the world, into which 
the commerce of the earth dispatched but few ships all the 
year round. But no feature of my lamentable situation 
so affrighted me, so worked upon the passions of my 
mind, as my loneliness. Oh, for one companion, even one 
only, to make me an echo for mine own speech ! Nay, 
God Himself, the merciful Father of all, even He seemed 
mot ! The blackness lay like a pall upon the deep, and 
upon my soul. Misery and horror were within that shadow 
and beyond it nothing that my spirit could look up to. 

I stood for some moments as one stunned, and then my 
manhood — trained to some purpose by the usage of the 
sea — reasserted itself ; and maybe I also got some slender 
comfort from observing that, dull and heavy as was the 
motion of the brig, there was yet the buoyancy of vitality 
in her manner of mounting the seas, and that, after all, 
her case might not be so desperate as was threatened by 
the way in which she had been torn and precipitated past 
the iceberg. At moments when she plunged the white- 
ness of the water creammg upon the - surges on either 
hand threw out a phantom light of sufficient power to en- 
able me to see that the forward part of the brig was lit- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


17 


tered with wreckage, which served to a certain extent as a 
breakwater by preventing the seas which washed on to 
the forecastle from cascading with their former violence 
aft ; also that the whole length of the main and topmasts 
lay upon the larboard rail and over the side, held in that 
position by the gear attached to them. This was all that 
I could distinguish, and of this only the most elusive 
glimpse was to be had. 

Feeling as though the- very marrow in my bones were 
frozen, I crawled to the companion, and, pulling open the 
door, descended. The lamp in the companion burnt 
faintly. There was a clock fixed to a beam over the 
table ; my eyes directly sought it, and found the time 
twenty minutes after ten. This signified that I had nine 
or ten hours of darkness before me ! 

I took down the lamp, trimmed it, and went to the laza- 
rette hatch at the after end of the cabin. Here were kept 
the stores for the crew. I lifted the hatch and listened, 
and could hear the water in the hold gurgling and rushing 
with every lift of the brig’s bows ; and I could not ques- 
tion from the volume of water which the sound indicated 
that the vessel was steadily taking it in, but not rapidly. 
I swallowed half a pannikin of the Hollands for the sake of 
the warmth and life of the draught, and entering my cabin, 
put on thick, dry stockings, first chafing my feet till I felt 
the blood in them ; and I then, with a seaman’s dispatch, 
shifted the rest of my apparel, and cannot express how 
greatly I was comforted by the change, though the jacket 
and trousers I put on were still damp with the soaking of 
previous days. To render myself as waterproof as possible 
— for it was the wet clothes against the skin that made the 
cold so cruel — I took from the captain’s cabin a stout 
cloak and threw it over me, enveloping my head, which I 
had cased in a warm fur cap, with the hood of it ; and 
thus equipped I lighted a small hand-lantern that was 
used on dark nights for heaving the log, that is, for show- 
ing how the sand runs in the glass, and carried it on deck. 

The lantern made the scene a dead, grave-like black 
outside its little circle of illumination ; nevertheless, its 
rays suffered me to guess at the picture of ruin the decks 
offered. The mainmast was snapped three or four feet 
above the deck, and the stump of it showed as jagged and 
barbed as a wild beast’s teeth. But I now noticed that 
the weight of the hamper, being on the larboard side, 
balanced the list the vessel took from her shifted ballast, 


2 


i8 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


and that she floated on a level keel with her bows fair at 
the sea, whence I concluded that a sort of sea anchor had 
been formed ahead of her by the wreckage, and that it 
held her in that posture, otherwise she must certainly have 
fallen into the trough. 

I moved with extreme caution, casting the lantern light 
before me, sometimes starting at a sound that resembled a 
groan, then stopping to steady myself during some par- 
ticular wild leap of the hull ; until, coming abreast of the 
main hatch, the rays of the lantern struck upon a man’s 
body, which, on my bringing the flame to his face, proved 
to be Captain Rosy. There was a wound over his right 
brow ; and as if that had not sufficed to slay him, the fall 
of the masts had in some wonderful manner whipped a 
rope several times around his body, binding his arms and 
encircling his throat so tightly that no executioner could 
have gone more artistically to work to pinion and choke 
a man. 

Under a mass af rigging in the larboard scuppers lay 
two bodies, as I could just faintly discern; it was impos- 
sible to put the lantern close enough to either one to dis- 
tinguish his face, nor had I the strength even if I had pos- 
sessed the weapons to extricate them, for they lay under a 
whole body of shrouds, complicated by a mass of other gear, 
against which leaned a portion of the caboose. I viewed 
them long enough to satisfy my mind that they were dead, 
and then with a heart of lead turned away. 

I crossed to the starboard side, where the deck was com- 
paratively clear, and found the body of a seaman named 
Abraham Wise near the forehatch. This man had prob- 
ably been stunned and drowned by the sea that filled the 
deck after I loosed the staysail. These were all of our 
people that I could find ; the others I supposed had been 
washed by the water or knocked by the falling spars over- 
board. 

I returned to the quarterdeck and sat down in the com- 
panion way for the shelter of it and to think. No lan- 
guage that I have command of could put before you the 
horror that possessed me as I sat meditating upon my situ- 
ation and recalling the faces of the dead. The wind was 
rapidly falling and with it the sea, but the motion of the 
brig continued very heavy, a large swell having been set 
running by the long, fierce gale that was gone ; and there 
being no uproar of tempest in the sky to confound the 
senses, I could hear a hundred harsh and melancholy 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


19 


groaning and straining sounds rising from the hull, with 
now and again a mighty blow as from some spar or lump 
of ice alongside, weighty enough, you would have sup- 
posed, to stave the ship. But though the Laughing Mary 
was not a new vessel, she was one of the stoutest of her 
kind ever launched, built mainly of oak and put together 
by an honest artificer. Nevertheless, her continuing to 
float in her miserably torn and mangled condition was so 
great a miracle, that, in spite of my poor shipmates having 
perished and my own state being as hopeless as the sky 
was starless, I could not but consider that God’s hand was 
very visible in this business. 

I will not pretend to remember how I passed the hours 
till the dawn came. I recollect of frequently stepping be- 
low to lift the hatch of the lazarette, to judge by the sound 
of the quantity of water in the vessel. That she was fill- 
ing I knew well, yet not leaking so rapidly but that, had 
our crew been preserved, we might easily hav^e set her free, 
and made shift to rig up jury-masts and haul us, as best we 
could, out of these desolate parallels. There was, how- 
ever, nothing to be done till the day broke. I had noticed 
the jolly-boat bottom up near the starboard gangway, and 
so far as I could make out by throwing the dull lantern 
light upon her she was sound ; but I could not have 
launclied her without seeing what I was doing, and even 
had I managed this, she stood to be swamped and I to be 
drowned. And, in sober truth, so horrible was the pros- 
pect of going adrift in her without preparing for the ad- 
venture with oars, sail, mast, provisions and water — most 
of which, by the lamplight only, were not to be come at 
amid the hideous muddle of wreckage — that sooner than 
face it I was perfectly satisfied to take my chance of the 
hulk sinking with me in her before the sun rose. 


CHAPTER IV. 

I QUIT THE WRECK. 

The east grew pale and gray at last. The sea rolled 
black as the night from it, with a rounded, smooth-backed 
swell ; the wind was spent ; only a small air, still from the 
northeast, stirred. There were a few stars dying out in 
the dark west ; the atmosphere was clear, and when the 


20 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


sun rose I knew he would burn the sable pall overhead 
into blueness. 

The hull lay very deep. I had at one time, during the 
black hours, ^ruck into a mournful calculation, and reck- 
oned that the brig would float some two or three hours 
after sunrise ; but when the glorious beam flashed out at 
last, and transformed the ashen hue of dawn into a ceru- 
lean brilliance and a deep of weltering sapphire, I started 
with sudden terror to observe how close the covering 
board sat upon the water, and how the head of every swell 
rolled past as high as the bulwark rail. 

Yet for a few moments I stood contemplating the scene 
of ruin. It was visible now to its most trifling detail. 
The foremast was gone smooth off at the deck ; it lay over 
the starboard bow ; and the topmast floated ahead of the 
hull, held by the gear. Many feet of bulwarks were 
crushed level ; the pumps had vanished ; the caboose was 
gone. A completer nautical ruin I had never viewed. 

One extraordinary stroke I quickly detected. The jolly- 
boat had lain stowed in the long-boat : it was thus we car- 
ried those boats, the little one lying snugly enough in the 
other. The sea that had flooded our decks had floated our 
jolly-boat out of the long-boat, and swept it bottom up to 
the gangway where it lay, as though God's mercy designed 
it should be preserved for my use ; for, not long after it 
had been floated out, the brig struck the berg, the masts 
fell — and there lay the long boat crushed into staves. 

This signal and surprising intervention filled my heart 
with thankfulness, though my spirits sank again at the 
sight of my poor drowned shipmates. But, unless I had 
a mind to join them, it was necessary I should speedily be- 
stir myself. So after a minute's reflection I whipped out 
my knife, and cutting a couple of blocks away from the 
raffle on deck, I rove a line through them, and so made a 
tackle by the help of which I turned the jolly-boat over ; 
I then with a handspike pried her nose to the gangway, 
secured a bunch of rope on either side of her to act as fen- 
ders or buffers when she should be launched and lying 
alongside, ran her midway out by the tackle, and, attach- 
ing a line by a ring-bolt in her bow, shoved her over the 
side, and she fell with a splash, shipping scarcely a hatful 
of water. 

I found her mast and sail — the sail furled to the mast, 
as it used to lie in her — close against the stump of the 
mainmast ; but though I sought with all the diligence that 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


21 


hurry would permit for her rudder, I nowhere saw it, but 
I met with an oar that had belonged to the other boat, 
and this with the mast and sail 1 dropped into her, the 
swell lifting her up to my hand when the blue fold swung 
past. 

My next business was to victual her. I ran to the cabin, 
but found the lazarette full of water, and none of the pro- 
visions in it to be come at. I thereupon ransacked the 
cabin, and found a whole Dutch cheese, a piece of raw 
pork, half a ham, eight or ten biscuits, some candles, a 
tinder box, several lemons, a little bag of flour, and thir- 
teen bottles of beer. These things I rolled up in a cloth, 
and placed them in the boat, then took from the Captain’s 
locker four jars of spirits, two of which I emptied that I 
might fill them with fresh water. I also took from the 
captain’s cabin a small boat compass. 

The heavy, sluggish, sodden movement of the hull ad- 
vised me to make haste. She was now barely lifting to 
the swell that came brimming in broad liquid blue brows 
to her stem. It seemed as though another ton of water 
would sink her ; and if the swell fell over her bows and 
filled the decks, down she would go. I had a small parcel 
of guineas in my chest, and was about to fetch this money, 
when a sort of staggering sensation in the upward slide 
of the hull gave me a fright, and, watching my chance, 
I jumped into the boat and cast the line that held her 
adrift. 

The sun was an hour above the horizon. The sea was 
a deep blue, heaving very slowly, though you felt the 
weight of the mighty ocean in every fold ; and eastward, 
the shoulders of the swell, catching the glorious reflection 
of the sun, iiauied the splendor along, till all that quarter 
of the sea looked to be a mass of leaping dazzle. Upon 
the eastern sea line lay a range of white clouds, compact 
as the chalk cliffs of Dover ; threads, crescents, feather- 
shapes of vapor of the daintiest sort, shot with pearly 
lustre, floated overhead very high. It was in truth a fair and 
pleasant morning — of an icy coldness indeed, but the air be- 
ing dry, its shrewdness was endurable. Yet it was a bright- 
ness to fill one with anguish by obliging me to reflect how 
it would have been with us had it dawned yesterday in- 
stead of to-day. My companions would have been alive, 
and yonder sinking, ruined fabric a trim ship, capable of 
bearing us stoutly into warm seas and to our homes at last. 

I threw the oar over the stern of the boat to keep her 


22 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


near to the brig, not so much because I desired to see the 
last of her, as because of the shrinking of my soul within 
me from the thought of heading in my loneliness into 
those prodigious leagues of ocean which lay stretched 
under the sky. While the hull floated she was some- 
thing to hold on to, so to say, something for the eye amid 
the vastness of water to rest upon, something to take out 
of the insufferable feeling of solitude the poisonous sting 
of conviction. 

But her end was at hand. I had risen to step the boat’s 
mast and was standing and grasping it while I directed a 
slow look around the horizon in God knows what a vain 
hope of beholding a sail, when my eye coming to the brig, 
I observed that she Avas sinking. She went down very 
slowly; there was a horrible gurgling sound of water rush- 
ing into her, and her main deck blew up with a loud clap 
or blast of noise. I could follow the line of her bulwarks 
fluctuating and waving in the clear dark blue when she 
was some feet under. A number of whirlpools spun 
round over her, but the slowness of her foundering was 
solemnly marked by the gradual descent of the luin of 
masts and yards which were attached to the hull by their 
rigging, and which she dragged down with her. On a 
sudden, when the last fragment of mast had disappeared, 
and when the hollows of the whirlpools were fluttering to 
the level surface of the sea, up rose a body with a sort of 
leap. It was the sailor that had lain drowned on the star- 
board side of the forward deck. Being frozen stiff lie rose 
in the posture in which he had expired, that is, wdth his 
arms extended ; so that, when he jumped to the surface, 
he came with his hands lifted up to heaven, and thus he 
stayed a minute, sustained by the eddies which also re- 
volved him. 

The shock occasioned by this melancholy object was so 
great, it came near to causing me to swoon. He sank 
when the water ceased to twist him, and I was unspeak- 
ingly thankful to see him vanish, for his posture had all 
the horror of a spectral appeal, and such was the state of 
my mind that imagination might quickly have worked the 
apparition, had it lingered, into an instrument for the 
unsettling of my reason. 

I rose from the seat on to which I had sunk and loosed 
the sail, and, hauling the sheet aft, put the oar over the 
stern, and brought the little craft’s head to an easterly 
course. The draught of air was extremely weak, and 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


23 

scarce furnished impulse enough to the sail to raise a 
bubble alongside. The boat was about fiteen feet long ; 
she would be but a small boat for summer pleasuring in 
English July lake waters, yet here was I in her in the 
heart of a vast ocean, many leagues south and west of the 
stormiest, most inhospitable point of land in the world, 
with distances before me almost infinite for such a boat 
as this to measure ere I could heave a civilized coast or a 
habitable island into view! 

At the start I had a mind to steer northwest and blow, 
as the wind would suffer, into the South Sea, where per- 
chance I might meet a whaler ora Southseaman from 
New Holland ; but my heart sank at the prospect of the 
leagues of water which rolled between me and the islands 
indthe western American seaboard. Indeed, I understood 
that my only hope of deliverance lay in being picked up ; 
and that, though by heading east I should be clinging to 
the stormy parts, I was more likely to meet with a ship 
hereabouts than by sailing into the great desolation of the 
northwest. The burden of my loneliness weighed down 
upon me so crushingly that I cannot but consider my 
senses must have been somewhat dulled by suffering, for 
had they been active to their old accustomed height, I am 
persuaded my heart must have broken and that I should 
have died of grief. 

Faintly as the wind blew, it speedily wafted me out of 
sight of the floating relics of the wreck, and then all was 
bare, bald, swelling sea and empearled sky, darkening in 
lagoons of azure down to the soft mountainous masses ol 
white vapor lying like the coast of a continent on the lar- 
board horizon. But one living thing there was besides 
myself, a gray-breasted albatross, of a princely width of 
pinion. I had not observed it until the hull went down, 
and then, lifting my eyes with involuntary sympathy in the 
direction pointed to by the upraised arm of the sailor, I 
observed the great royal bird hanging like a shape of 
marble directly over the frothing eddies. It was as though 
the spirit of the deep had taken form in the substance of 
the noblest of all the fo\Vls of its dominions, and, poised on 
tremulous wings, was surveying, with the cold curiosity of 
an intelligence empty of human emotion, the destruction of 
one of those fabrics whose unequal contests and the re- 
peated triumphs had provoked its haughty surprise. The 
bird quitted the spot of the wreck after a while and fol- 
lowed me. Its eyes had the sparkling blood-red gleam of 


24 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


rubies. It was as silent as a phantom, and with arched 
neck and motionless plumes seemed to watch me with an 
earnestness that presently grew insufferable. So far from 
finding any comfort or companionship in the creature, me- 
thought if it did not speedily break from the motionless 
posture in which it rested on its seat of air, and remove 
its piercing gaze, it would end in crazing me. I felt a 
sudden rage, and, jumping up, shouted and shook my fist 
at it. This frightened the thing. It uttered a strange 
salt cry — the very note of a gust of wind splitting upon a 
rope — flapped its wings, and after a turn or two sailed 
away into the north. 

I watched it until its figure melted into the blue atmos- 
phere, and then sank trembling into the sternsheets of the 
boat. 


CHAPTER V. 

I SIGHT A WHITE COAST. 

Four days did I pass in that little open boat. 

The first day was fine till sunset ; it then blew fresh 
from the northwest, and I was obliged to keep the boat 
before the wind. The next day was dark and turbulent, 
with heavy falls of snow and a high swell from the north 
and the wind a small gale. On the third day the sui 
shone, and it was a fair day, but horribly cold, and I saw 
two icebergs like clouds upon the far western sea line. 
There followed a cruel night of clouded skieSj sleet, and 
snow, and a very troubled sea ; and then broke the fourth 
day, as softly brilliant as an English May day, but cold — 
great God, how cold ! 

Thus might I epitomize this passage ; and I do so to 
spare you the weariness of a relation of uneventful suffer- 
ing. 

In those four days I mainly ran before the wind, and in 
this way drove many leagues south, though wdienever a 
cliance offered I hauled my sheef for the east. I know 
not, I am sure, how the boat lived. I might pretend it 
was due to my clever management — I do not say I had no 
share in my own preservation, but to God belongs all the 
praise. 

In the blackness of the first night the sea boiled all 
about me. The boat leapt into hollows in w^hich the sail 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


25 


slapped the mast. One look behind me at the high dark 
curl of the oncoming surge had so affrighted me that I 
never durst turn my head again, lest the sight should de- 
prive me of the nerve to lay hold of the oar with which I 
steered. I sat as squarely as the task of steering would 
suffer, trusting that if a sea should break over the stern 
my back would serve as a breakwater, and save the boat 
from being swamped. The whole sail was on her, and I 
could not help myself ; for it would have been certain 
death to quit the steering oar for an instant. It was this 
that saved me, perhaps ; for the boat blew along with such 
prodigious speed, running to the lieight of a sea as though 
she meant to dart from that eminence into the air, that 
the slope of each following surge swung like a pendulum 
under her, and, though her sail was becalmed in the 
trough, her momentum was so great that she was speed- 
ing up the acclivity and catching the whole weight of the 
wind afresh before there was time for her to lose way. 

I was nearly dead with cold and misery when the morn- 
ing came, but the sparkling sun and the blue sky cheered 
me, and as wind and sea fell with the soaring of the orb, I 
was enabled to flatten aft the sheet and let the boat steer 
herself while I beat my arms about for warmth and broke 
my fast. When I look back I wonder that I should have 
taken any pains to live. That it is possible for the human 
mind at any period of its existence to be absolutely hope- 
less, I do not believe ; but I can very honestly say that when 
I gazed around upon the dead sea I was in, and considered 
the size of my boat, the quantity of my provisions, and my 
distance (even if I was heading that way) from the nearest 
point of land, I was not sensible of the faintest stirring of 
hope, and viewed myself as a dead man. 

No bird came near me. Once I spied the back of a 
great black fish about a quarter of a mile off. The wetness 
of it caught the sunshine and reflected it like a mirror of 
polished steel, and the flash was so brilliant it might have 
passed for a bed of white fire floating on the blue heavings. 
But nothing more that was living did I meet, and such 
was the vastness of the sea over which rny little keel glid- 
ed, in the midst of which I sat abandoned by the angels, 
that for utter loneliness I might have been the very last of 
the human race. 

When the third night came down with sullen blasts, 
sweeping into a steady storming of wind that swung a 
strong melancholy howl through the gloom, it found me so 


26 


THA FROZEN PIRATE. 


weak with cold, watching, and anxiety, and the want of 
space wherein to rid my limbs of the painful cramp which 
weighted them with an insupportable leaden sensation, 
that I had barely power to control the boat with the oar. 
I pined for sleep ; one hour of slumber would, I felt, give 
me new life, but I durst not close my eyes. The boat was 
sweeping through the dark and seething seas, and her 
course had to be that of an arrow, or she would capsize and 
be smothered in a breath. 

M^ybe I felt something delirious, for I had many strange 
and frightful fancies. Indeed, I doubt not it was the spirit 
of madness — that is certainly tonical when small — which 
furnished strength enough to my arm to steer with. It was 
like the action of a powerful cordial in my blood, and the 
very horrors it fed my brain with were an animation to my 
physical qualities. The gale became a voice ; it cried out 
my name, and every shout of it past my ear had the sound 
of the word “ Despair ! ” I witnessed the forms of huge 
phantoms flying over the boat ; I watched the beating of 
their giant wings of shadow and heard the thunder of their 
laughter as they fled ahead, leaving scores of like mon- 
strous shapes to follow. There was a faint lightning of 
phosphor in the creaming heads of the ebon surges, and 
my sick imagination twisted that pallid complexion into 
the dim reflection of the lamps of illuminated pavilions at 
the bottom of the sea ; mystic palaces of coral, radiant 
cities in the measureless kingdoms of the ocean gods. I 
had a fancy of roofs of pearl below, turrets of milk-white 
coral, pavements of rainbow lustre like the shootings and 
dartings of the hues of shells inclined and trembled to the 
sun. I thought I could behold the movements of shapes 
as indeterminable as the forms which swarm in dreams, 
human brows crowned with gold, the cold, round, emerald 
eyes of fish, the creamy breasts of women, large outlines 
slowly floating upward, making a deeper blackness upon 
the blackness, like the dye of the electric storm upon the 
velvet bosom of midnight. Often would I shrink from 
side to side, starting from a fancied apparition leaping 
into terrible being out of some hurling block of liquid ob- 
scurity. 

Once a light shone upon the masthead. At any other 
time I should have known this to be a St. Elmo’s fire, a 
corposant, the ignis fatuus of the deep, and hailed it with 
a seaman’s faith in its promise of gentle weather. But to 
my distempered fancy it was a lantern hung up by a 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


27 


Spirit hand ; I traced the dusky curve of an arm, and ob- 
served the busy twitching of visionary fingers by the rays 
of the ghostly light ; the outline of a large face, of a bland 
and sorrowful expression, pallid as any foam-flake whirl- 
ing past, came into the sphere of those graveyard rays. I 
shrieked and shut my eyes, and when I looked again the 
light was gone. 

Long before daybreak I was exhausted. Mercifully 
the wind was scant ; the stars shone very gloriously ; on 
high sparkled the Cross of the southern world. A benign 
influence seemed to steal into me out of its silver shining ; 
the craze fell from me, and I wept. 

Shortly afterw'ard, worn out by three days and nights of 
suffering, I fell into a deep sleep, and when I awoke my 
eyes opened right upon the blinding sun. 

This was the morning of the fourth day. I was with- 
out a watch. By the height of the sun I reckoned the 
hour to be ten. I threw a languid glance at the com- 
pass and found the boat’s head pointing northwest ; 
she fell off and came to, being without governance, 'and 
was scarcely sailing therefore. The wind was west, a very 
light breeze, just enough to put a bright twinkling into 
the long, smooth folds of the wide and weighty swell that 
was rolling up from the northeast. I tried to stand, but 
was so benumbed that many minutes passed before I had 
the use of my legs. Brightly as the sun shone there was 
no more warmth in his light than you find in a moonbeam 
on a frosty night, and the bite in the air was like the pang 
of ice itself pressed against the cheek. My right hand 
suffered most ; I had fallen asleep clasping the loom of 
the steering oar, and when I awoke my fingers still 
gripped it, so that, on withdrawing them, they remained 
curved like talons, and I believed I had lost their use, and 
even reckoned they would snap off and so set up a morti- 
fication, till, by much diligent rubbing I grew sensible of 
a small glow, which, increasing, ended in rendering the 
joints supple. 

I stood up to take a view of the horizon, and the first 
sight that met my eyes forced aery from me. Extending 
the whole length of the southwest seaboard lay what I took 
to be a line of white coast melting at either extremity into 
the blue airy distance. Even at the low elevation of the 
boat my eye seemed to measure thirty miles of it. It was 
not white as chalk is ; there was something of a crystalline 
complexion upon the face of its solidity. It was too far 


28 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


off to enable me to mark its outline ; yet on straining my 
sights — the atmosphere being exceedingly clear — I thought 
I could distinguish the projections of peaks, of rounded 
slopes, and aerial angularities in places which, in the re- 
fractive lens of the air, looked, with their hue of glassy 
azure, like the loom of high land behind the coastal line. 

The notion that it was ice came into my head after the 
first prospect of it ; and then I returned to my earlier be- 
lief that it was land. Methought, if it wfere ice, it must be 
the borderland of the Antarctic circle, the limits of the 
unfrozen ocean, for it was incredible that so mighty a body 
could signify less than the capes and terraces Of a conti- 
nent of ice glazing the circumference of the pole for 
leagues and leagues — but then I also kriew that, though 
first the brig and then my boat had been for days steadily 
blown south, I was still to the north of the South Shetland 
parallels, and many degrees, therefore, removed from the 
polar barrier. Hence I concluded that what I saw was 
land, and that the peculiar crystal shining of it was caused 
by the snow that covered it. 

But what land ? Some large island that had been 
missed by the explorers and left uncharted ? I put a 
picture of this part of the world before my mind’s eye, and 
fell to an earnest cohsideration of it, but could recollect of 
no land liereabouts, unless, indeed, we had been wildly 
wrong in our reckoning aboard tiie brig, and I in the boat 
had been driven four or five times the distance I had cal- 
culated— things not to be entertained. 

Yet even as a mere break in the frightful and enduring 
continuity of the sea line — even a$ something that Was not 
sea nor sky, nor the cold, silent, and mocking illusion of 
clouds — it took a character of blessedness in my eyes ; my 
gaze hung upon it joyously, and my heart swelled with a 
new impulse of life in my breast. It would be strange, I 
thought, if, on approaching it, something to promise tne de- 
liverance from this dreadful situation did not offer itself — 
some whaler or trader at anchor, signs of habitation or the 
presence of men, nay, even a single hut to serve as a refuge 
from the pitiless cold, the stormy waters, the black, lonely, 
delirious watches of the night, till help should heave in 
view with the white canvas of a ship. 

I put the boat’s head before the wind, and steered with 
one hand while I got some breakfast with the other. I 
thanked God for the brightness of the day, and for the 
sight of that strange white line of land that went in glim- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


29 


mering blobs of faintness to the trembling horizon where 
the southern end of it died out. Tj;ie swell rose full and 
brimming ahead, rolling in sapphire hills out of the north- 
east, as I have said, whence I inferred that that extremity 
of the land did not extend very much farther than I could 
see it, otherwise there could not have been so much weight 
of water as I found in the heaving. 

The breeze blew lightly and was the weaker for my 
running before it ; but the little line of froth that slipped 
past either side the boat gave me to know that the speed 
would not be less than four miles in the hour ; and as 1 
reckoned the land to be five leagues distant, I calculated 
upon being ashore some little while before sundown. 

In this way two hours passed. By this time the feat- 
ures of the coast were tolerably distinct. Yet I was puz- 
zled. There was a peculiar sheen all about the irregular 
sky line ; a kind of pearly whitening, as it were, of the 
heavens beyond, like to the effect produced by the rising 
of a very delicate, soft mist melting from a mountain’s 
brow into the air. This dismayed me. Still, I cried to my- 
self : “ It must be land ! All that whiteness is snow, and 
the luminous tinge above it is the reflection of the glaring 
sunshine thrown upward from the dazzle. It cannot be 
ice ! ’tis too mighty a barrier. Surely no single iceberg 
ever reached to the prodigious proportions of that coast. 
And it cannot be an assembly of bergs, for there is no 
break — it is leagues of solid conformation. Oh, yes, it is 
land, sure enough ! some island whose tops and seaboard 
are covered with snow. But what of that ? It may be 
populated all the same. Are the northern kingdoms of 
Europe bare of life because of the winter rigors ?” And 
then I thought to myself, if that island has natives, I would 
rather encounter them as the savages of an icebound coun- 
try than as the inhabitants of a land of sunshine and spicks 
and radiant vegetation ; for it is the denizens of the most 
gloriously fair ocean seats in the world who are man- 
eaters ; not the Patagonian, giant though he be, nor the 
blubber-fed anatomies of the ice climes. 

Thus I thought to reassure and comfort myself. Mean- 
while my boat sailed quietly along, running up and down 
the smooth and foamless hills of water very buoyantly, 
and the sun slided into the northwest sky and darted a 
reddening beam upon the coast toward which I steered. 


30 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 



V,^|apter vl 

^N ISLAND OF TOE. 

I bad to approach the coast within two miles before I 
could satisfy my mind of its nature, and then all doubt 
left me. • 

It was tee — a mighty crescent of it — as was now in a 
measure gatherable, floating upon the dark blue waters 
like the new moon upon the field of the sky. 

For a great while I had struggled with my misgivings, 
so tyrannically will hope lord it, even over conviction it- 
self, until it was impossible for me to any longer mistake. 
And then, when I knew -it to be ice, I asked myself what 
other thing I expected it should prove, seeing that this 
ocean had been plentifully navigated since Cook’s time, 
and no land discovered where I was ; and I called myself 
a fool and cursed the hope that had cheated me, and, in 
short, gave way to a violent outburst of passion, and was, 
indeed, so wild with grief and rage, that, had my ecstasy 
been but a very little greater, I must have jumped over- 
board, so great was my loathing of life then, and the hor- 
ror the sight of the ice filled me with. 

Indeed, you cannot conceive how shocking to me was 
the appearance of that great gleaming length of white deso- 
lation. On the deck of a stout ship sailing safely past it I 
should have found the scene magnificent, I doubt not ; for 
the sun, being low with westering, shone redly, and the 
range of ice stood in a kind of gold atmosphere which gave 
an extraordinary richness to the shadowings of its rocks 
and peaks, and a particular fulness of mellow whiteness 
to its lustrous parts, softening the dazzle into an airy tender- 
ness of brightness, so that the whole mass shone out with 
the blandness visible in a glorious star. But its main 
beauty lay in those features by which I knew it to be ice 
— I mean in a vast surprising variety o^ forms, such as 
steeples, towers, columns, pyramids, ruin^ as it might be 
of temples, grotesque shapes as of mightv statues left un- 
finished by the hands of Titans, domes as of cathedrals, 
castellated heights, fragments of ramparts, and the like. 
These features lay in groups, as if veritably the line of 
coast were dotted with gatherings of royal mansions and 
remains of imperial magniJhcence, all of white marble, yet 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


31 


with a glassy tincture as though the material owned some- 
thing of a Parian quality. 

I had to come within two miles, as I have said, before 
these elegances broke upon me, so deceptively did their 
delicacy of outline mingle with the dark blue softness be- 
yond. In places the coast ran up to a height of two or 
three hundred feet ; in others it sloped down to twenty 
feet. For some miles it was like the face of a cliff, a sheer 
abrupt, with scarce a scar upon its front, staring with a 
wild, bald look over the frosty beautiful blue of that after- 
noon sea. Here and there it projected a forefoot, some 
white and massive rock, upon which the swell of the ocean 
burst in thunder, and flew to almost the height of the 
cliff in a great and glorious fury of foam. In other parts, 
where I suspected a sort of beach, there was the silver 
tremble of surf; but in the main, the heave coming out of 
the northeast, the folds swept the base of the ice without 
froth. 

I say again, beheld in the red sunshine, that line of ice, 
resembling a coast of marble defining the liquid junction 
of the swelling folds of sapphire below and the moist violet 
of the eastern sky beyond and over it, crowned at points 
with delicate imitations of princely habitations, would 
have offered a noble and magnificent spectacle to a mind 
at ease ; but to my eyes its enchantments were killed by 
the horror I felt. It was a lonely, hideous waste, rendered 
the more shocking by the consideration that the whole 
vast range was formed of blocks of frozen water which 
warmth would dissolve ; that it was a country as solid as 
rock and as unsubstantial as a cloud, to be shunned by the 
mariner as though it was Death’s own pavilion, the estate 
and mansion of the grisly spectre, and creating round 
about it as supreme a desolation and loneliness of ocean 
as that which reigned in its own white stillness. 

Though I held the boat’s head for it I was at a loss— in 
so much confusion of mind that I knew not what to do. 
I did not doubt by the character of the swell that its lim- 
its in the northeast extended only to the sensible horizon ; 
in other words, that its extremity there would not be above 
five miles distant, though to what latitude its southern arm 
did, curve was not to be conjectured. 

Should I steer to the north, and seek to go clear of it ? 
Somehow the presence of this similitude of land made the 
sea appear as enormous as space itself. Whilst it was all 
clear horizon the immensity of the deep was in a measure 


32 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


limited to the vision by its cincture. But this ice-line gave 
the eye something to measure with, and when I looked at 
those leagues of frozen shore my spirits sank into deepest 
dejection at the thought of the vastness of the waters in 
whose heart I floated in my little boat. 

However, I resolved at last to land if landing was possi- 
ble. 1 could stretch my limbs, recruit myself by exercise, 
and might even make shift to obtain a night’s rest. I 
stood in desperate need of sleep, but there was no repose 
to be had in the boat. I durst not lie down in her ; if nat- 
ure overcame, me and I fell asleep in a sitting posture, I 
might wake to find the boat capsized and myself drown- 
ing. This consideration resolved me, and by this time, 
being within half a mile of the coast, I ran my eye care- 
fully along it to observe a safe nook for my boat to enter 
and myself to land in. 

Though for a great distance, as I have said, the front of 
the cliff, and where it was highest, too, was a sheer fall, 
coming like the side of a house to the water, that part of 
the island toward which my boat’s head was pointed sloped 
down and continued in a low shore, with hummocks of ice 
upon it at irregular intervals, to where it died out in the 
northeast. I now saw that this part had a broken appear- 
ance, as if it had been violently rent from a mainland of 
ice : also, to my approach, many ledges projecting into 
the sea stole in view. There were ravines and gorges, and 
almost on a line with the boat’s head was an assemblage 
of those delicate glass-like counterfeits of spires, towers, 
and the like, of which I have spoken, standing just beyond 
a brow whose declivity fell very easily to the water. 

To make you see the picture as I have it in my mind 
would be beyond my art ; it is not in the pen — not in the 
brush, either, I should think — to convey even a tolerable 
portraiture of the ruggedness, the fairy grouping, the 
shelves, hollows, crags, terraces, precipices, and beach of 
this kingdom of ice, where its frontal line broke away from 
the smooth face of the tall reaches, and ran with a plowed, 
scarred, and serrated countenance northwards. 

Very happily I had insensibly steered for, perhaps, the 
safest spot that I could have lighted on ; this was formed 
of a large projection of rock, standing aslant, so that the 
swell rolled past it without breaking. The rock made a 
sort of cove, toward which I sailed in full confidence that 
the water there would be smooth. Nor was I deceived, 
for I saw that the rock acted as a breakwater, whose still- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


33 


ing influence was felt a good way beyond it. I thereupon 
steered for the starboard of this rock, and when I was 
within it found the heave Of the sea dwindled to a scarce 
perceptible undulation, whereupon I lowered my sail, and, 
standing to the oar, sculled the boat to a low lump of ice, 
on to which I stepped. 

My first business was to secure the boat ; this I did by 
inserting the mast into a deep, thin crevice in the ice and 
making the painter fast to it as a pole. The sun was now 
very low, and would soon be gone. The cold was extreme, 
yet I did not suffer from it as in the boat. There is a 
quality in snow which it would be ridiculous to speak of 
as warmth; yet, as you may observe after a heavy fall 
ashore on top of a black frost, it seems to have a power of 
blunting the sharp edge of the cold, and the snow on this 
shore of ice being very abundant, though frozen as hard 
as the ice itself, appeared to mitigate the intolerable rigor 
I had languished under upon the water, in the brigand af- 
terward. This might also be owing to the dryness of the 
cold. 

Having secured the boat, I beat my hands heartily upon 
my breast, and fell to pacing a little level of ice while I 
considered what I should do. The coast — I cannot but 
speak of this frozen territory as land — went in a gentle 
slope behind me to the heiglit of about thirty feet ; the 
ground was gently broken with rocks and boulders and 
sharp points, when I suspected many fissures in which the 
snow might not be so hard but that I might sink deep 
enough to be smothered. I saw no cave nor hollow that 
I could make a bedroom of, and the improved circulation 
of my blood giving me spirits enough to resolve quickly, 
I made up my mind to use my boat as a bed. 

So I went to work. I took the oar and jammed it into 
such another crevice as the mast stood in, and to it I se- 
cured the boat by another line. This moored her very 
safely. There was a good promise of a fair, quiet night, 
as I might count upon in these treacherous latitudes ; the 
haven in which the boat lay waS slieltered and the water 
almost still, and this I reckoned would hold while the 
breeze hung northerly and the swell rolled from the north- 
east. I spread the sail over the seats, which Served as 
beams for the support of this little ceiling of canvas, and 
enough of it remained to supply me with a pillow and to 
cover my lips. I fell to this work while there was light, 
and when I had prepared my habitation, I took a bottle of 

3 


34 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


ale and a handful of victuals ashore and made my supper, 
walking briskly while I ate and drank. I caught myself 
sometimes looking yearningly toward the brow of the 
slope, as though from that eminence I should gain an ex- 
tensive prospect of the sea, and, perhaps, behold a ship : 
but I wanted the courage to climb, chiefly because I was 
afraid of tumbling into a hole and miserably perishing, 
and, likewise, because I shrunk from the idea of being 
overtaken up there by darkness. There was a kind of 
companionship in the boat, the support of which I should 
lo§e if I left her. 

The going of the sun was attended by. so much glory 
that the whole weight of my situation, and the pressure of 
my solitude did not come upon me until his light was gone. 
The swell ran athwart his mirroring in lines of molten 
gold ; the sky was a sheet of scarlet fire where he was, 
paling zenithwards into an ardent orange. The splendor 
tipped the frozen coast with points of ruby flame, which 
sparkled and throbbed like sentinel beacons along the 
white and silent range. The low thunder of far off hills 
of water bursting against the projections rolled sulkily 
down upon the weak wind. Just beyond the edge of the 
slope, about a third of a mile to the north of my little 
haven, stood an assemblage of exquisitely airy outlines — 
configurations such as I have described ; their crystalline 
nature stole out to the lustrous coloring of the glowing 
west, and they had the appearance of tinted glass of 
several dyes of red, the delicate fibres being deep of hue, 
the stouter ones pale ; and never did the highest mood of 
human invention reach to anything more glorious and 
dainty, more sweetly simulative of the arts of a fairy-like 
imagination than yonder cluster of icy fabrics, fashioned, 
as it entered my head to conceive, as pavilions by the 
hands of the spirits of the frozen world, and gilt and 
painted by the beams of the setting siin. 

But all this wild and unreal beauty melted away to the 
oncoming of the dusk ; and when the sun was gone and 
the twilight had pyt a new quality of bleakness into the 
air, when the sea rolled in a welter of dark shadows, one 
sombre fold shouldering another — a very swarming of 
restless giant phantoms — when the shining of the stars low 
down in the unfathomable obscurity of the north and south 
quarters gave to the ocean in those directions a frightful 
immensity of surface, making you feel as though you 
viewed the scene from the centre of the firmament, and 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


35 


were gazing down the spangled slopes of infinity — oh, 
then it was that the full spirit of the solitude of this pale and 
silent seat of ice took possession of me. I found a mean- 
ing I had not before caught in tlie complaining murmur of 
the night breeze blowing in small gusts along the rocky 
shore, and in the deep organ-like, tremulous hum of the 
swell thundering miles distant on the northward-pointing 
cliffs. This was a note I hacj missed while the sun shone. 
Perhaps my senses were sharpened by the darkness. It 
mingled with the booming of the bursts of water on this 
side of the range and gave me to know that the northward 
extremity of the island did not extend so far as I had sup- 
posed from my view of it in the boat. Yet I could also 
suppose that the beat of the swell formed a mighty can- 
nonading capable of making itself heard afar, and the ice, 
being resonant, with many smooth if not polished tracts 
upon it, readily transmitted the sound, yes, though the 
cause of it lay as far off as the horizon. 

I will not say that my loneliness frightened me, but it 
subdued my heart with a weight as if it were something 
sensible, and filled me with a sort of consternation that 
was full of awe. The moon was up, but the rocks hid 
the side of the sea she rode over, and her face was not to 
be viewed from where I was until she had marched two- 
thirds of her path to the meridian. The coast ran away 
on either hand in cold, motionless blocks of pallor, which 
further on fell (by deception of the sheen of the stars) into 
a kind of twisting and snaking glimmer, and you followed 
it into an extraordinarily elusive faintness that was neither 
light nor color in the liquid gloom, long after sight had 
outrun the visibility of the range. At intervals I was star- 
tled by sounds, sometimes sullen, like a muffled subterra- 
nean explosion, sometimes sharp, like a quick splintering 
of an iron-hard substance. These noises, I presently 
gathered, were made by the ice stretcliing and cracking 
in fifty different directions. The mass was so vast and 
substantial you could not but think of it as a country with 
its foot resting upon the bed of the sea. ’Twas a folly of 
my nerves, no doubt, yet it added to my consternation to 
reflect that tliis solid territory, reverberating the repelled 
blows of the ocean swell, was as much afloat as my boat, and 
so much less actual than my boat that, could it be towed a 
few degrees further north, it would melt into pouring wa- 
ters and vanish as utterly, with its little cities of columns, 
steeples, and minarets, as a wreath of steam upon the air. 


36 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


This gave a spirit-like character to it in my dismayed, 
inquiring eyes, which was greatly increased by the vague- 
ness it took from the dusk. It was such a scene, me- 
thought, as the souls of seamen drowned in these seas 
might flock to and haunt. The white and icy spell upon 
it wrought in familiar things. The stars looking down 
upon me over the edge of the cliffs were like the eyes of 
shapes (easy to fashion out of the darkness) kneeling up 
there and peering at the human intruder who was pacing 
his narrow floor of ice for warmth. The deceit of the 
shadows proportioned the blank ruggedness of the cliff’s 
face on the north side into heads and bodies of monsters. 
I beheld a giant, from his waist up, leaning his cheek upon 
his arm ; a great cross with a burlesque figure, as of a 
friar, kneeling near it ; a mighty helmet with a white 
plume curled ; the shadowy conformation of a huge cou- 
chant beast, with a hundred otiier such unsubstantial 
prodigies. Had the moon shone in the west, I dare say I 
should have witnessed a score more such things, for the 
snow was like white paper, on which the clear black 
shadows of the ice rocks could not but have cast the like- 
ness of many startling phantasies. 

I sought to calm my mind by considering my position, 
and to divert my thoughts from the starwrought appari- 
tions of the broken slopes I asked myself what should be 
my plans, what my chance of delivering myself from this 
unparalleled situation. At this distance of time I cannot 
precisely tell how long the provisions I had brought from 
the foundered brig were calculated to last me, but I am 
sure I had not a week’s supply. This, then, made it plain 
that my business was not to linger here, but to push into 
the ocean afresh as speedily as possible, for to my mind 
nothing in life was clearer than that my only chance lay 
in my falling in with a ship. Yet how did my heart sink 
when I reflected upon the mighty breast of sea in which I 
was forlonly to seek for succor ! My eyes went to the 
squab, black outline of the boat, and the littleness of her 
sent a shuder through me. It is true she had nobly car- 
ried me through some fierce weather, yet at the expense 
of many leagues of southing, of a deeper penetration into 
the solitary wilds of the polar waters. 

However, I was sensible that I was depressed, melan- 
choly, and under a continued consternation, something of 
which the morning sun might dissipate, so that I should 
be able to take a heartier view of my woeful plight. So, 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


37 


after a good look seaward, and at the heavens to satisfy 
niyself on the subject of the weather, and after a careful 
inspection of the moorings of the boat, I entered her, feel- 
ing very sure that if a sea set in from the west and south 
and tumbled her, the motion would quickly arouse me ; 
and, getting under the roof of sail, with my legs along the 
bottom and my back against the stem, which I had bol- 
stered with the slack of the canvas, I commended myself 
to God, folded my arms and went to sleep. 


CHAPTER yil. 

I AM STARTLED BY A DISCOVERY. 

In this uneasy posture, despite the intense cold, I con- 
tinued to sleep soundly during the greater part of the 
night. I was awakened by a horrid dream of some giant 
shape stalking down the slope of ice to seize and devour 
me, and sat up trembling with horror that was not a little 
increased by my inability to recollect myself, and by my 
therefore conceiving the canvas that covered me to be the 
groping of the ogre’s hand over my face. 

I pushed the sail away and stood up, but had instantly 
to sit again, my legs being terribly cramped. A drink 
of spirits helped me ; my blood presently flowed with 
briskness. 

The moon was in the west ; she hung large, red and 
distorted, and shed no light save her reflection, that waved 
in the sea under her like several lengths of undulating 
red-hot wire. My haven was still very tranquil — the boat 
lay calm ; but there was a deeper tone in the booming 
sound of the distant surf, and a more menacing note in 
the echoing of the blows of the swell along this side of 
the coast, whence I concluded that, despite the fairness of 
the weather, the heave of the deep had, while I slept, 
gathered a greater weight which might signify stormy 
winds not very many leagues away. 

The pale stare of the heights of ice at that red and sliape- 
less disc was shocking. “Oh,” I cried aloud, as I had 
once cried before, “but for one, even but one, companion 
to speak to.” 

I had no mind to lie down again. The cold indeed was 
cruelly sharp, and the smoke sped from my mouth with 


38 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


every breath as though I held a tobacco pipe betwixt my 
teeth. I got upon the ice and stepped about it quickly, 
darting searching glances into the gloom to left and right 
of the setting moon ; but all lay bare, bleak, and black. 
I pulled off my stout gloves with the hope of getting my 
fingers to tingle by handling the snow ; but it was frozen 
so hard I could not scrape up with my nails as much as a 
half-dozen of flakes would make. What I got I dissolved 
in my mouth and found it brackish ; however, I suspected 
it would be sweeter and perhaps not so stonily frozen 
higher up, where there was less chance of the salt 
^ray mingling with it, and I resolved when the light 
came to fill my empty beer-bottles as with salt or pounded 
sugar for use hereafter — that is if it should prove sweet ; 
as to melting it, I had indeed a tinder box and the means 
of obtaining fire, but no fuel. 

It seemed as if the night had only descended, so tardy 
was the dawn. Outside the slanting wall of ice that 
made my haven the swell swept past in a gurgling, bub- 
bling, drowning sound, dismal and ghastly, as though in 
truth some such ogre as the monster I had dreamed of 
lay suffering there. I welcomed the cold coloring of the 
east as if it had been a ship, and watched the stars dying 
and the frozen shore darkening to the dim and sifting 
dawn behind it, against which the outline of the cliffs ran 
in a broken streak of ink. The rising of the sun gave me 
fresh life. The ice flashed out of its slatish hue into a 
radiant white, the ocean changed into a rich blue that 
seemed as violet under the paler azure of the heavens ; 
but 1 could now see that the swell was heavier than I had 
suspected from the echo of its remote roaring in the north. 
It ran steadily out of the northeast. This was miserable 
to see, for the line of its running was directly my course, 
and if I committed myself Lo it in that little boat, the 
impulse of the long and swinging folds could not but set 
me steadily southward, unless a breeze sprung up in that 
quarter to blow me toward the sun. There was a small 
current of air stirring, a mere trickle of wind from the 
northwest. 

I made up ray mind to climb as high as I could, taking 
the oar with me to serve as a pole, that I might view the 
ice and the ocean round about and form a judgment of 
the weather by the aspect of the sky, of which only the 
western part was visible from my low stand. But first I 
must break my fast. I remember bitterly lamenting the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


39 


lack of means to make a fire that I might obtain a warm 
meal, a hot drink, and dry my gloves, coat, and breeches, 
to which the damp of the salt clung tenaciously. Had 
this ice been land, though the most desolate, gloomy, re- 
pulsive spot in the world, 1 had surely found something 
that would burn. 

I sat in the boat to eat, and while thus occupied pon- 
dered over this great field of ice, and wondered how so 
mighty a berg should travel in such compacted a bulk so 
far north — that is, so far north from the seat of its creation. 
Now leisurely and curiously observing it, it seemed to me 
that the north part of it, from much about the spot where 
my boat lay, was formed of a chain of icebergs knitted 
one to another in a consolidated range of irregular low 
steeps. The beautiful appearances of spires, towers, and 
the like seemed as if they had been formed by an upheav- 
al, as of an earthquake, of splinters and bodies of the 
frozen stuff ; for, so far as it was possible for me to see 
from the low shore, wherever these radiant and lovely fig- 
ures were assembled I noticed great rents, spacious chasms, 
narrow and tortuous ravines. Certain appearances, how- 
ever, caused me to suspect that this island was steadily 
decaying, and that, large as it still was, it had been many 
times vaster when it broke away from the continent about 
the Pole. Naturally, as it progressed northward it would 
dissolve, and the cracking and thunderous noises I had 
heard in the night, sounds very audible now when I gave 
them my attention — sometimes a hollow, distant rumbling 
as of some great body dislodged and set rolling far off, 
sometimes an inward roaring crack or blast (T noise like 
the report of a cannon fired deep down — advised me that 
the work of dissolution was perpetually progressing, and 
that this prodigious island which appeared to barricade 
the horizon might in a few months be dwindled into half 
a score of rapidly dissolving bergs. 

My slender repast ended, T pulled the oar out of the 
crevice, and found it would make me a good pole to probe 
my way with and support myself by up the slope. The 
boat was now held by the mast, which I shook and found 
very firm. I put an empty beer bottle in my pocket, mean- 
ing* to see if 1 could fill it, if the snow up above was sweet 
enough to be well-tasted, and then with a final look at the 
boat I started. 

The slope was extremely craggy. Blocks of ice lay 
about, some on top of the others, like the stones of which 


40 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


the pyramids are built ; the white glare of the snow 
caused these stones at a little distance to appear flat — that 
is, by merging them into and blending them with the soft 
brilliance of the background ; and I had sometimes to 
warily walk fifty or sixty paces round these blocks to come 
at a part of the slope that was smooth. 

I speedily found, however, that there was no danger of 
my being buried by stepping into a hollow full of snow ; 
for the same hardness was everywhere, the snow, whether 
one or twenty feet deep, offering as solid a surface as the 
bare ice. This encouraged me to step out, and I began to 
move with some spirit ; the exercise was as good as a fire, 
and before I was half way up I was as warm as ever I had 
been in my life. 

I had come to a stand to fetch a breath, and was moving 
on afresh, when, having taken not half a" dozen steps, 1 
spied the figure' of a man. He was in a sitting posture, his 
back against a rock that had concealed him. His head 
was bowed, and his knees df^wn up to a level with his 
chin, and his naked hands were clasped upon his legs. 
His attitude was that of a person lost in thought, very easy 
and calm. 

I stopped as if I had been shot through the heart. Had 
it been a bear, or a sea-lion, or any creature which my 
mind could instantly have associated, with this white and 
stirless desolation, I might have been startled indeed ; but 
no such amazement could have possessed me as I now felt. 
It never entered into my head to doubt that he was alive, 
so natural was his attitude, as of one lost in a mood of 
tender melancholy. 

I stood staring at him, myself motionless, for some min- 
utes, too greatly astonished and thunderstruck to note 
more than that he was a man. Then I looked about me 
to see if he had companions or for some sign of a habita- 
tion, but the ice was everywhere naked. I fixed my eyes 
on him again. His hair was above a foot long, black as 
ink, and the blacker may be for the contrast of the snow. 
His beard and mustachios, which were also of this raven 
hue, fell to his girdle. He wore a great yellow flapping 
hat, such as was in fashion among the Spaniards and buc- 
caneers of the South Sea ; but over his ears, for the 
warmth of the protection, were squares of flannel tied un- 
der his beard by a very fine red silk handkerchief, and this, 
with his hair and pale cheeks and black shaggy eyebrows, 
gave him a terrible and ghastly appearance. From his 


THE FROZEN PIRAJ'E. 


41 


shoulders hung a rich thick cloak lined with red, and the 
legs to the height of the knees were incased in large 
boots. 

I continued surveying him with my heart beating fast. 
Every instant I expected to see him turn his head and 
start to behold me. My emotions were too tumultuous to 
analyze, yet I believe I was more frightened than glad- 
dened by the sight of a fellow-creature, though not long 
before I had sighed bitterly for some one to speak to. I 
looked around again, prepared to find another one like him 
taking stock of me from behind a rock, and then ventured 
to approach him by a few steps the better to see him. He 
had certainly a frightful face. It was not only the length 
of his coal-black hair and beard ; it was the hue of his 
skin, a greenish ashen color, an unspeakably hideous com- 
plexion, sharpened on the one hand by the red handker- 
chief over his ears and on the other by the dazzle of the 
snow. Then, again, there was the extreme strangeness of 
his costume. 

I coughed loudly, holding my pole in readiness for what- 
ever might befall, but he did not stir ; I then halloaed, 
and was answered by the echoes of my own voice among 
the rocks. His stillness persuaded me he was in one of 
those deep slumbers which fall upon a man in frozen 
places, for I could not persuade myself he was dead, so 
living was his posture. 

This will not do, thought I ; so I went close to him and 
peered into his face. 

His eyes were fixed ; they resembled glass painted as 
eyes, the colors faded. He had a broad belt round his 
waist, and the hilt of a cutlass peeped from under his 
cloak. Otherwise he was unarmed. I thought he 
breathed, and seemed to see a movement in his breast, and 
I took him by the shoulder; but in the hurry of my feel- 
ings I exerted more strength than I was sensible of ; I 
pushed him with the violence of sudden trepidation ; my 
hand slipped off his shoulder, and he fell on his side, ex- 
actly as a statue would, preserving his posture, as though, 
like a statue, he had been chiselled out of marble or stone. 

I started back frightened by his fall, in which my fears 
found a sort of life ; but it was soon clear to me his rigidity 
was that of a man frozen to death. His very hair and 
beard stood stiff, as before, as though they were some ex- 
quisite counterfeit in ebony. Perfectly satisfied that he 
was dead, I stepped round to the other side of him, and 


42 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


set him up as I had found him. He was as heavy as if he 
had been alive, and when I put his back to the rock his 
posture was exactly as it had been, that of one deeply 
meditating. 

Who had this man been in life ? How had he fallen into 
this pass ? How long had he been dead there, seated as I 
saw him ? 

These were speculations not to be resolved by conjec- 
ture. On looking at the rock against which he leaned 
and observing its curvature, it seemed to me that it had 
formed part of a cave, or of some large deep hole of ice ; 
and this I was sure must have been the case, for it is cer- 
tain that, had this body remained long unsheltered, it 
must have been hidden by the snow. 

I concluded then that the unhappy man had been cast 
away upon this ice while it was under bleaker heights 
than these parallels, and that he had crawled into a hol- 
low, and perished in that melancholic sitting posture. 
But in what year had his fate come upon him ? 1 had 

made several voyages into distant places in my time and 
seen a great variety of people ; but I had never met any 
man habited as that body. He had the appearance of a 
Spanish or French cut-throat of the middle of last cen- 
tury, and of earlier times yet ; for it may be known to you 
tliat the buccaneers of the Spanish Main and the South 
Sea were great lovers of finery ; they had a strange theatric 
taste in their choice of costumes, which, as you will sup- 
pose, they had abundant opportunities for gratifying out 
of the many rich and glittering wardrobes that fell into 
their hands ; and this man, I say, with his large fine hat, 
handsome cloak and boots, coupled with the villainous 
cast of his countenance and the friglitful appearance the 
long hair gave him, rendered him to my notions the com- 
pletest figure that coifld be imagined of one of those 
rogues who earned their living as pirates. 

Thinking I might find something on his person to ac- 
quaint me with his story or that would furnish me with 
some idea of the date of his being cast away, I pulled his 
cloak aside and searched his pockets. His legs were 
thickly cased in two or three pairs of breeches, the outer 
pair being of a dark green cloth. He also wore a hand- 
some red waistcoat, laced, and a stout coat of a kind of 
frieze. In his coat pocket I found a silver tobacco-box, a 
small glass flask fitted with a silver band and half full of 
an amber-colored liquor, hard froze ; and in his waistcoat 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


43 


a gold watch, sliaped like an apple, the back curiously 
chased and inlaid with jewels of several kinds, forming a 
small letter m. The hands pointed to twenty minutes 
after three. A key of a strange shape and a number of 
seals, trinkets, and the like, were attached to the watch. 

These things, together with a knife, a key, a thick plain 
silver ring, and some Spanish pieces in gold and silver 
were what I found on this man. There was nothing to 
tell me who he was nor how long he had been on the 
island. 

The searching him was the most disagreeable job I ever 
undertook in my life. His iron-like rigidity made him 
seem to resist me; and the swaying of his back against the 
rock to the motions of my hand was so full of life that 
twice I quitted him, frightened by it. On touching his 
naked hand by accident I discovered that the flesh of it 
moved upon the bones as you pull a glove off and on. I 
had had enough of him, and walked away feeling sick. If 
he had companions, and they were like him, I did not 
Avant to see them unless it was that I might satisfy my 
curiosity as to the time they had been here. I deter- 
mined, however, on my way back to take his cloak, which 
would make me a comfortable rug in the boat, and also 
the watch, flask, and tobacco-box ; for if I was drowned 
they could but go to the bottom of the sea, which was their 
certain destination if I left them in his pockets ; and if I 
came off with them, then the money they would bring me 
must somewhat lighten the loss of my clothes and prop- 
erty in the brig. 

I pushed onward, stepping warily and probing cau- 
tiously at every step, and earnestly peering about me, for 
after such a sight as that dead man I was never to know 
what new wonder I was to stumble upon. About a quar- 
ter of a mile on my left — that is, on my left while I kept 
my face tO the slope — there was the appearance of a ra- 
7ine not discernible from where the boat lay. When I 
was within twenty feet of the summit of the cliff, the ac- 
clivdty continuing very gentle to the very brow, but much 
broken, as I have said, I noticed this hollow, and more 
particularly a small collection of ice-forms, not nearly so 
large as the other groups of this kind, but most dainty 
and lovely nevertheless. They showed as the heads of 
trees might to my ascent, and when I got a little higher I 
observed that they were formed on the hither side of the 
hollow, as though the convulsion which had wrought that 


44 the frozen P/rate. 

chasm had tossed up those exquisite caprices of ice. 
However, I was too eager to view the prospect from the 
top of the cliif to suffer my admiration to detain me ; in 
a few minutes 1 had gained the brow, and, clambering on 
to a mass of rock, I sent my gaze around. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FROZEN SCHOONER. 

I found myself on the summit of a kind of tableland ; 
vast bodies of ice, every block weighing hundreds and 
perhaps thousands of tons, lay scattered over it ; yet for 
the space of a mile or so the character was that of flatness. 
Southward the range went upward to a coastal front of 
some hundred feet, with a huddle of peaks and strange 
configurations behind soaring to an elevation from the sea- 
line of two or three hundred feet. Northward the range 
sloped gradually, with such a shelving of its hinder part 
that I could catch a glimpse of a little space of the blue sea 
that way. From this I perceived that whatever thickness 
and surface of ice lay southward, in the north it was atten- 
uated to the shape of a wedge, so that its extreme breadth 
where it projected its cape or extremity would not exceed 
a musket shot. 

A companion might have qualified in my mind sonie- 
thing of the sense of prodigious loneliness and desolation 
inspired by the huge picture of dazzling uneven white- 
ness, blotting out the whole of the southeast ocean, rolling 
in hills of blinding brilliance into the bine heavens, and 
curving and dying out into an airy film of silvery-azure 
radiance leagues away down in the southwest. But to 
my solitary eye the spectacle was an amazing and con- 
founding one. 

If I had not seen the tract of dark-blue water in the 
northeast, I might have imagined that this island stretched 
as far into the east and north as it did into the south and 
west. And one thing I quickly enough understood ; that 
if I wanted to behold the ocean on the east side of the 
ice I should have to journey the breadth of the range, 
which here, where I was, might mean one or five miles, for 
the blocks and lumps hid the view, and how far off the 
edge of the cliffs on the other side might be 1 could not, 


THE FROZEN E/RATE. 


45 


therefore, gather. This was not to be dreamt of, and, 
therefore, to this extent my climb had been useless. 

Being on the top of the range now, I could plainly hear 
the noises of the splitting and internal convulsions of this 
vast formation. The sounds are not describable. Some- 
times they seemed like the explosions of guns, sometimes 
like the growlings and mutterings of huge, fierce beasts, 
sometimes like smart single echoless blasts of thunder ; 
and sometimes you heard a singular sort of hissing or 
snarling, such as iron makes when speeding over ice, only 
when this noise happened the volume of it was so great 
that the atmosphere trembled upon the ear with it. It 
was impossible to fix the direction of these sounds, the isl- 
and was full of them ; and always sullenly booming upon 
the breeze was the voice of the ocean swell bursting in 
foam against the ice-coast that confronted it. 

You may talk of the solitude of a Selkirk, but surely the 
spirit of loneliness in him could not rival the unutterable 
emotion of solitariness that filled my mind as I sent my 
gaze over those miles of frozen, stirless whiteness. He 
had the sight of fair pastures, of trees making a twinkling 
twilight on the sward, of grassy savannahs, and pleasant 
slopes of hills ; the air was illuminated by the glorious, 
plumage of flying birds ; the bleat of goats broke the 
stillness in the valleys ; there w’as a golden regale for his 
eye, and his other senses were gratified with the perfume 
of rich flowers, and engaging concerts among the trem- 
bling leaves. Above all, there was the soothing warmth of 
a delicious climate. But out upon these heaped and 
spreading plains of snow nothing stirred, if it were not 
once that I was startled by a loud report, and spied a rock 
about half a mile away slide down the edge of the flat 
cliff and tumble into the sea. Nothing stirred, I say ; 
there was an affrighting solemnity of motionlessness 
everywhere. The countenance of this plain glared like 
a great, dead face at the sky ; neither sympathy, nor 
fancy, no, not the utmost forces of the imagination, could 
witness expression in it. Its unmeaningness was ghastly, 
and the ghastlier for the greatness of its bald and lifeless 
stare. 

I turned my eyes seaward ; haply it was the w’hiteness 
that gave the ocean the extraordinarily rich dye I found 
in it. The expanse went in flowing folds of violet into the 
nethermost heavens, and though God knows what extent 
of horizon I surveyed, the line of it, as clear as glass, ran 


46 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


without the faintest flaw to amuse my heart with even an 
instant’s hope. 

There was more weight, however, in the w’ind than I 
supposed. It blew from the west of north, and was an 
exquisitely frosty wind, despite the quarter whence it 
came. It swept in moans among the rocks, and there were 
tones in it that recalled the stormy muttering we had 
lieard in the blasts which came upon the brig before the 
storm boiled down upon her. But my imagination was 
now so tight-strung as to be unwholesomely and unnatur- 
ally responsive to impulses and influences, which at an- 
other time I had not noticed. There were a few heavy 
clouds in the northeast, so steam-like that methought they 
borrowed their complexion from the snow on the island’s 
cape there. I was pretty sure, however, that there was 
wind behind them, for if the roll of the ocean did not sig- 
nify heavy weather near to, then what else it betokened I 
could not imagine. 

1 cannot express to you how the very soul within me 
shrank from putting to sea in the little boat. There was 
no longer the support of the excitement and terror of es- 
caping from a sinking vessel. I stood upon an island as 
solid as land, and the very sense of security it imparted 
rendered the boat an object of terror, and the obligation 
upon me to launch into yonder mighty space as frightful 
as a sentence of death. Yet I could not but consider that 
it would be equally shocking to me to be locked up in 
this slowly crumbling body of ice — nay, tenfold more 
shocking, and that, if I had to choose between the boat 
and this hideous solitude and sure starvation, I would 
cheerfully accept fifty times over again the perils of a 
navigation in my tiny ark. 

This reflection comforted me somewhat, and while I 
thus mused I remained standing with my eyes upon the 
little group of fanciful fanes and spires of ice on the edge 
of the abrupt hollow. I had been too preoccupied to take 
close notice ; on a sudden I started, amazed by an appear- 
ance too exquisitely perfect to be credible. The sun shone 
with a fine white frosty brilliance in the northeast ; some 
of these spikes and figures of ice reflected the radiance in 
several colors. In places where they were wind-swept of 
their snow and showed the naked ice, the hues were won- 
drously splendid, and mingling upon the sight, formed a 
kind of airy rainbow-like veil that complicated the whole 
congregation of white shaft and many-tinctured spire, the 


THE FROZEX F/RATE,- 


47 


marble column, the alabaster steeple in a confused but 
most surprisingly dainty and shining scene. 

It was while looking at this that my eyes traced, a little 
distance beyond, the form of a ship’s spars and rigging. 
Tlirough the labyrinth of the ice outlines I clearly made 
out two masts, with two square yards on the foremast, the 
rigging perfect so far as it went, for the figuration showed 
no more than half the height of the masts, the lower parts 
being apparently hidden behind the edge of the hollow. 
I have said that this coast to the north abounded in many 
groups of beautiful fantastic shapes, suggesting a great 
variety of objects, as the forms of clouds do, but nothing 
perfect ; but here now was something in ice that could 
not have been completer, more symmetrical, more fault- 
lessly proportioned had it been the work of an artist. I 
walked close to it and a little way around so as to obtain 
a clearer view, and then getting a fair sight of the appear- 
ance I halted again, transfixed with amazement. 

The fabric appeared as if formed of frosted glass. The 
masts had a good rake, and with a seaman’s eye I took 
notice of the furniture, observing the shrouds, stays, back- 
stays, braces to be perfect. Nay, as though the spirit 
artist of this fragile glittering pageant had resolved to 
omit no detail to complete the illusion, there stood a vane 
at the masthead, shining like a tongue of ice against the 
soft blue of tiie sky. “ Come,” thought I, recovering from 
my wonder, “there is more in this than it is possible for 
me to guess by staring from a distance so, striking my 
pole into the snow, I made carefully toward the edge of 
the hollow. 

The gradual unfolding of the picture prepared my mind 
for what I could not see till the brink was reached ; then, 
looking down, I beheld a schooner-rigged vessel lying in 
a sort of cradle of ice, stern-on to the sea. A man bulked 
out with frozen snow, so as to make his shape as great as 
a bear, leaned upon the rail with a slight upward inclina- 
tion of his head, as though he were in the act of looking 
fully up to hail me. His posture was even more life-like 
than that of the man under the rock, but his garment of 
snow robbed him of that reality of vitality which had 
startled me in the other, and the instant I saw him I knew 
him to be dead. He was the only figure visible. The whole 
body of the vessel was frosted by the snow into the glassy 
aspect of the spars and rigging, and the sunshine striking 
down made a beautiful prismatic picture of the silent ship. 


48 


THE FROZEN P IRATE. 


She was a very old craft. The snow had moulded itself 
upon her and enlarged without spoiling her form. I 
found her age in the structure of her bows, the head- 
boards of which curved very low round to the top of the 
stem, forming a kind of welt there, the after-part of which 
was framed by the forecastle bulkhead, after the fashion 
of shipbuilding in vogue in the reign of Anne and the first 
two Georges. Pier topmasts were standing, but her jib- 
boom was rigged in. I could find no other evidence of 
her people having snugged her for these winter-quarters, 
in which she had been manifestly lying for years and 
years. I traced the outlines of six small cannon covered 
with snow, but resting with clean-sculptured forms in their 
white coats ; a considerable piece of ordnance aft, and 
several pedereroes or swivel-pieces upon the after-bulwark 
rails. Gaffs and booms were in their places, and the sails 
furled upon them. The figuration of the main-hatch 
showed a small square, and there was a companion or 
hatch-cover, abaft the mainmast. There was no trace of 
a boat. She had a flush or level deck from the well in 
the bows to a fathom or so past the main-shrouds ; it was 
then broken by a short poop-deck, which went in a great 
spring or rise to the stern, that was after the pink style, 
very narrow and tall. 

Though I write this description coldly, let it not be sup- 
posed that I was not violently agitated, and astonished 
almost into the belief that what I beheld was a mere 
vision, a phenomenon. The sight of the body I examined 
did not nearly so greatly astound me as the spectacle of 
this ice-locked schooner. It was easy to account for the 
presence of a dead man. My own situation, indeed, suffi- 
ciently solved the riddle of that corpse. But the ship, 
perfect in all respects, was like a stroke of magic. She 
lay with a slight list or inclination to larboard, but, on the 
whole, tolerably upright, owing to the corpulence of her 
bilge. The hollow or ravine that formed her bed went 
with a sharp incline under her stern to the sea, which was 
visible from the top of the cliffs here through the split in 
the rocks. The shelving of the ice put the wash of the 
ocean at the distance of a few hundred feet from the 
schooner ; but I calculated that the vessel’s actual eleva- 
tion above the water-line, supposing you to measure it 
with a plummet up and down, did not exceed twenty feet, 
if so much, the hollow in which she rested being above 
twenty feet deep. 


THE FROZEN PJRA7'E. 


49 


It was very evident that the schooner had in years gone 
by got embayed in this ice when it was far to the south- 
ward, and had in course of time been built up in it by 
floating masses. For how old the ice about the poles may 
be, who can tell ? In those sunless worlds, the frozen con- 
tinents may well possess the antiquity of the land. And 
who shall name the monarch who filled the throne of 
Britain when this vast field broke away from the main and 
started on its stealthy navigation sunward ? 


CHAPTER IX. 

I LOSE MY BOAT. 

I lingered, I dare say, above twenty minutes contem- 
plating this singular crystal fossil of a ship, and con- 
sidering whether I should go down and ransack her for 
whatever might answer my turn. But she looked so 
darkly secret under her white garb, and there was some- 
thing so terrible in the aspect of the motionless snow-clad 
sentinel who leaned upon the rail, that my heart failed 
me, and I very easily persuaded myself to believe that, 
first, it would take me longer to penetrate and search her 
than it was proper I should be away from the boat ; that, 
second, it was scarce to be supposed her crew had left any 
provisions in her, or that, if stores there were, they would 
be fit to eat, and that, finally, my boat was so small it would 
be rash to put into her any of the most trifling matter that 
was not essential to the preservation of my life. 

So, concluding to have nothing to do with the ghostly, 
sparkling fabric, I started for the body under the rock, 
and with some pain and staggering, the ice being very 
jagged, lumpish, and decitful to the tread, arrived at it. 

Nothing but the desire to possess the fine warm cloak 
could have tempted me to handle or even to cast my eye 
upon the dead man again. I found myself more scared 
by him now than at first. His attitude was so life-like 
that, though I knew him to be a corpse, liad he risen on a 
sudden the surprise of it could hardly have shocked me 
more than the astonishment his posture raised. As a 
skeleton he could not have so chilled and awed me ; but 
so well preserved was his flesh by the cold, that it was 
hard to persuade myself he was not breathing, and that, 

4 


50 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


though he feigned to be gazing downwfurd, he was not 
secretly observing me. 

His beard was frozen as hard as a bush, and it crackled 
unpleasantly to the movement of my hands, which I was 
obliged to force under it to unhook the silver chain that 
confined the cloak about his neck. I felt like a thief, and 
stole a glance over either shoulder as though, forsooth, 
some strangely clad companion of his should be creeping 
upon me unawares. Then, thought I, since I have the 
cloak I may as well take the watch, flask, and tobacco-box, 
as I had before resolved ; and so I dipped my hand into his 
pockets, and without another glance at his fierce, still 
face, made for the boat. 

I now noticed for the first time, so overwhelmingly had 
my discoveries occupied my attention, that the wind had 
freshened and was blowing briskly and piercingly. When 
I had first started upon the ascent of the slope the wind 
had merely wrinkled the swell as the large bodies ran ; 
but those wrinkles had become little seas, which flashed 
into foam after a short race, and the whole Surface of the 
ocean was a brilliant blue tremble. I came to a halt to 
view the northeast sky before the brow of the rocks hit it, 
and saw that clouds were congregating there and some of 
them blowing up to where the sun hung, these resembling 
in shape and color the compact puff of a cannon before 
the smoke spreads on the air. What should I do ? I sank 
into a miserable perplexity. If it was going to blow what 
good could attend my departure from this island ? It was 
an adverse wind and when it freshened I could not choose 
but run before it, and that would drive me clean away 
from the direction I required to steer in. Yet if I was to 
wait upon the weather, for how long should I be kept a 
prisoner in this horrid place ? True, a southerly wind 
might spring up to-morrow, but it might be otherwise, or 
come a hard gale ; and if I faltered now I might go on 
hesitating, and then my provisions would give out, and 
God alone knows how it would end with me. Besides, the 
presence of the two bodies made the island fearful to my 
imagination, and nature clamored in me to be gone, a 
summons my judgment could not resist, for reason often 
misleads, but instinct never. 

I fell again to my downward march and looked toward 
my boat — that is to say, I looked toward the part of ice 
where the little haven in which she lay had been, and I 
found both boat and haven gone. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


SI 

I rubbed my eyes and stared again. “ Tush,” thought I, 
“ I am deceived by the ice.” I glanced at the slope behind 
me to keep me to my bearings, and once more sought the 
haven ; but the rock that had formed it was gone, the blue 
swell rolled brimming past the line of shore there, and 
my eye following the swing of a fold, I saw the boat about 
three cables’ length distant out upon the water, swinging 
steadily away into the south, and showing and disappear- 
ing with the heave. 

The dead man’s cloak fell from my arm ; I uttered a cry 
of anguish ; I clasped my hands and lifted them to God, 
and looked up to Him. I was for kicking off my boots 
and plunging into the water, but, mad as I was, I was not 
so mad as that ; and mad I should have been to attempt 
it, for I could not swim twenty strokes, and had I been 
the stoutest swimmer that ever breasted the salt spray, the 
cold must have speedily put an end to my misery. 

What was to be done ? Nothing ! I could only look 
idly at the receding boat with reeling brain. The full 
blast of the wind was upon her, and helping the driving 
action of the billows. I perceived that she was irrecoverable, 
and yet I stood watching, watching, watching — my head 
burning with the surgings of twenty impracticable schemes. 
I cast myself, down and wept, stood up afresh and looked 
at the boat, then cried to God for help and mercy, bring- 
ing my hands to my throbbing temples, and in that post- 
ure straining my eyes at the fast-vanishing structure. 
She was the only hope I had — my sole chance. My little 
stock of provisions was in her— oh, what was I to do ? 

Though I was at some distance from the place where 
what I have called my haven had been, there was no need 
for me to approach it to understand how my misfortune had 
come about. It was likely enough that the- very crevice 
in which I had jammed the mast to secure the boat by was 
a deep crack that the increased swell had wholly split, so 
that the mast had tumbled when the rock floated away 
and liberated the boat. 

The horror with which this white and frightful scene of 
desolation had at the beginning filled me was renewed with 
such violence when I saw that my boat was lost and I was to 
be a prisoner on the death-haunted waste, that I fell down 
in a sort of swoon, like one partly stunned, and, had any 
person come along and seen me, he would have thought 
me as dead as the body on the hill or the corpse that kept 
its dismal look-out from the deck of the schooner. 


52 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


My senses presently returning, I got up, and, the rock 
upon which I stood being level, I fell to pacing it with my 
hands locked behind me, my head sunk, lost in thought. 
The wind was steadily freshening ; it split -with a howling 
noise upon the ice-crags and unequal surfaces, and spun 
with a hollow note past my ear ; and the thunder of the 
breakers on the other side of the island was deepening its 
tone. The sea was lifting and whitening ; something of 
mistiness had grown up over the horizon that made a blue 
dulness of the junction of the elements there; but though 
a cloud or two out of the collection of vapor in the north- 
east had floated to the zenith and w^ere sailing down the 
southwest heaven, the azure remained pure and the sun 
very frostily white and sparkling. 

I am writing a strange story with the utmost candor, and 
trust that the reader will not judge me severely for my 
confession of weakness, or consider me as wanting in the 
stuff out of which the hardy seaman is made for owming 
to having shed tears and been stunned by the loss of my 
little boat and slender stock of food. You will say, it is 
not in the power of the dead to hurt a man ; w'hat more 
pitiful and harmless than a poor, unburied corpse ? I an- 
swer, true, and declare that of the two bodies, as dead men, 
I was not afraid ; but this mass of frozen solitude was 
about them, and they took a frightful character from it ; 
they communicated an element of death to the desolation 
of the snoW'Clad island ; their presence made a princi- 
pality of it for the souls of dead sailors, and into their 
life-like stillness it put its own supernatural spirit of lone- 
liness ; so that to my imagination, disordered by suffering 
and exposure, this melancholy region appeared a scene 
without parallel on the face of the globe, a place of 
doom and madness as dreadful and wild as the highest 
mood of the poet could reach up to. 

By this time the boat was out of sight. I looked and 
looked, but she was gone. Then came my good angel to 
my help and put some courage into me. “ After all,” 
thought I, what do I dread ? Death ? It can but come to 
that. It is not long ago since Captain Rosy cried to me, 
A 7nan can die but once. He'll not perish the quicker for con- 
iemplating his end with a stout heart.' He that so spoke is 
dead. The worst is over for him. Were he a babe resting 
upon his mother’s breast he could not sleep more soundly, 
be more tenderly lulled, nor be freer from such anguish 
as now afflicts me who cling to life, as if this — this,” I 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE, 


53 


cried, looking around me, “ were a paradise of warmth and 
beauty. I must be a man, ask God for courage to meet 
whatever may betide, and stoutly endure what cannot be 
evaded.” 

Do not smile at the simple thoughts of a poor castawav 
sailor. I hold them still to be good reasoning, and, had 
my flesh been as strong as my spirit, they had availed, I 
don't doubt. But I was chilled to the marrow; the mere 
knowing that there was nothing to eat sharpened my ap- 
petite, and I felt as if I had not tasted food for a week ; 
and here, then, were physical conditions which broke ruin- 
ously into philosophy and staggered religious trust. 

My mind went to the schooner, yet I felt an extraordi- 
nary recoil within me when I thought of seeking an asy- 
lum in her. 1 had the figure of her before my fancy, 
viewed the form of the man on her deck, and the idea of 
penetrating her dark interior and seeking shelter in a 
fabric that time and frost and death had wrought into a 
black mystery was dreadful to me. Nor was this all. It 
seemed like the very last expression of despair to board 
that stirless frame ; to make a dwelling-place, without 
prospect of deliverance, in that hollow of ice ; to become, 
in one sense, as dead as her lonely mariner, yet preserve 
all the sensibility of the living to a condition he was as 
unconscious of as the ice that enclosed him. 

“ It must be done, nevertheless,” thought I ; “ I shall cer- 
tainly perish from exposure if I linger here ; besides, how 
do 1 know but that I may discover some means of escaping 
from that ship ?” Assuredly there was plenty of material in 
her for the building of a boat, if I could meet with tools. 
Or possibly I might find a boat under hatches, for it was 
common for vessels of her class and in her time to stow 
their pinnaces in the hold and, when the necessity for 
using them arose, to hoist them out and tow them astern. 

These reflections somewhat heartened me, and also let 
me add that the steady mounting of the wind into a small 
gale served to reconcile me, not, indeed, to the loss of my 
boat, but to my detention ; for though there might be a 
miserable, languishing end forme here, I could not but 
believe that there was certain death out there in that high 
swell and in those sharpening peaks of water off whose 
foaming heads the wind was blowing the spray. By which 
I mean the boat could not have plyed in such a wind ; 
she must iiave run, and by running have carried me into 
the stormier regions of the South, where, even if she had 


54 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


lived, I must speedily have starved for victuals and per- 
ished of cold. 

Hope lives like a spark amid the very blackest embers 
of despondency. Twenty minutes since I had awakened 
from a sort of swoon and was overwhelmed with misery ; 
and now here was I taking a collected view of my situa- 
tion, even to the extent of being willing to believe that on 
the whole it was perhaps as well that I should have been 
hindered from putting to sea in my little egg-shell. So 
at every step we rebel at the shadowy conducting of the 
hand of God ; yet from every stage we arrive at we look 
back and know the road we have travelled to be the right 
one, though we start afresh mutinously. Lord, what 
patience hast Thou ! 

I turned my back upon the clamorous ocean and started 
to ascend the slope once more. When I reached the brow 
of the cliffs 1 observed that the clouds had lost their fleeci- 
ness and taken a slatish tinge, were moving fast and 
crowding up the sky, insomuch that the sun was leaping 
from one edge to another and darting a keen windy light 
upon the scene. The wind was bitterly cold, and screamed 
shrilly in my ears when I met the full tide of it. The 
change was sudden, but it did not surprise me. I knew 
these seas, and that our English April is not more capri- 
cious than the weather in tliern, only that here the sunny 
smile, though sparkling, is frostier than the kiss of death, 
and brief as the flight of a musket-ball, while the frowns 
are black, savage, and lasting. 

I bore the dead man’s cloak on my arm and helped my- 
self along with the oar, and presently arrived at the brink 
of the slope in whose hollow lay the ship as in a cup. The 
wind made a noisy howling in her rigging, but the tack- 
ling was frozen so iron hard that not a rope stirred, and 
the vane at the masthead was as motionless as any of the 
adjacent steeples or pillars of ice. My heart was dis- 
mayed again by the figure of the man. He was more 
dreadful than the other because of the size to which the 
frozen snow upon his head, trunk, and limbs had swelled 
him ; and the half-rise of his face was particularly start- 
ling, as if he were in the very act of running his gaze 
softly upward. That he should have died in that easy 
leaning posture was strange ; however, I supposed, and 
no doubt rightly, that he had been seized with a sudden 
faintness, and had leaned upon the rail, and so expired. 
The cold would quickly make him rigid and likewise pre- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


55 


serve him, and thus he might have been leaning, contem- 
plating the ice of the cliffs, for years and years ! 

A wild and dreadful thing for one in my condition to 
light on and be forced to think of. 

My heart, as I liave said, sank in me again at the sight 
of him, and fear and awe and superstition so worked upon 
my spirits that I stood irresolute, and would have gone 
back liad there been any place to return t6. I plucked 
up after a little, and rolling up the cloak into a compact 
bundle, tlung it with all my strength to the vessel, and it 
fell cleverly just within the rail. Tlien gripping the oar I 
started on the descent. 

The depth was not great nor the declivity sharp, but the 
surface was formed of blocks of ice, like the collections of 
big stones you sometimes encounter on the sides of moun- 
tains near the base, and I had again and again to fetch a 
compass so as to gain a smaller block down which to drop, 
till I w^as close to the vessel, and here the snow had piled 
and frozen into a smooth face. 

The ship lay with a list or inclination to larboard. I 
liad come down to her on her starboard side. She had 
small channels with long plates, but her list, on my side, 
hove them somewhat high, beyond my reach, and I per- 
ceived that to get aboard I must seek an entrance on the 
larboard hand. This was not hard to arrive at ; indeed, I 
had but to walk round her, under her bows. She was so 
coated with hard snow I could see nothing of her timbers, 
and was therefore unable to guess at the condition of the 
hull. She had a most absurd swelling bilge, and her but- 
tocks, view^ed on a line with her rudder, doubtless pre- 
sented the exact appearance of an orange. She was sunk 
in snow to some planks above the garboard-streak, but her 
lines forward were fine, making her almost w^edge-shaped, 
though the flair of her bows was great, so that she swelled 
up like a balloon to the catheads. She had something of 
the look of the barco-longos of half a century ago — that 
is, half a century ago from the date of my adventure ; but 
that which, in sober truth, a man would have taken her to 
be was a vessel formed of snow, sparred and rigged with 
glass-like frosted ice, the artistic caprice of the genius or 
spirit of this white and melancholy scene, who, to com- 
plete the mocking illusion had fashioned the figure of a 
man to stand on the deck with a human face toughened 
into an idle, eternal contemplation. 

On the larboard side the ice pressed close against the 


56 


7'HE FROZEN PIRATE. 


vessel’s side, some pieces rising to the height of her wash- 
streak. The face of the hollow was precipitous here, full 
of cracks and flaws and sharp projections. Indeed, had 
the breadth of the island been as it was at the extremity, I 
might have counted upon the first violent commotion of 
the sea snapping this part of the ice, and converting the 
northern part of the body into a separate berg. 

I climbed without difficulty into the forechains, the 
snow being so hard that my feet and hands made not the 
least impression on it, and somewhat warily — feeling the 
government of a peculiar awe, mounting into a sort of 
terror indeed — stood awhile peering over the rail of the 
i bulwarks ; then I entered the ship. I ran my eyes swiftly 
here and there, for indeed I did not know what might steal 
or leap into view. Let it be remembered that I was a 
sailor, with the superstitious feelings of my calling in me, 
and though I do not know that I actually believed in 
ghosts and apparitions and spectrums, yet I felt as if I 
did, particularly upon the deck of this silent ship, rendered 
spirit-like by the grave of ice in which she lay and by the 
long years (as I could not doubt) during which she had 
thus rested. Hence, when I slipped off the bulwark on to 
the deck and viewed the ghastly, white, lonely scene, I felt 
for the moment as if this strange discovery of mine was 
not to be exhausted of its wonders and terrors by the mere 
existence of the ship — in other words, that I must expect 
something of the supernatural to enter into this icy 
sepulchre, and be prepared for sights more marvellous and 
terrifying than frozen corpses. 

So I stood looking forward and aft, very swiftly, and in 
a way I dare say that a spectator would have thought 
laughable enough; nor was my imagination soothed by 
the clear, harping, ringing sounds of the wind seething 
through the frozen rigging where the masts rose above 
the shelter of the sides of the hollow. 

Presently, getting the better of my perturbation, I 
walked aft, and, stepping on to the poop-deck, fell to an 
examination of the companion or covering of the after- 
hatch, which, as I have elsewhere said, was covered with 
snow. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


57 


CHAPTER X. 

ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY. 

This hatch formed the entrance to the cabin, and there 
was no other road to it that I could see. If I wanted to 
use it I must first scrape away the snow ; but unhappily I 
had left my knife in the boat, and was without any instru- 
ment that would serve me to scrape with. I thought of 
breaking the beer bottle that was in my pocket and 
scratching with a piece of the glass ; but before doing this 
it occurred to me to search the body on the starboard 
side. 

I approached him as if he were alive and murderously 
fierce, and I own I did not like to touch him. He resem- 
bled the figure of a giant moulded in snow. In life he 
must have been six feet and a half tall. The snow had 
bloated him, and though he leaned he stood as high as I, 
who was of a tolerable stature. The snow was on his 
beard and mustaches and on his hair ; but these features 
were merged and compacted into the snow on his coat, 
and as his cap came low and was covered with snow too, 
he, with the little fragment of countenance that remained, 
the flesh whereof had the color and toughness of the skin 
of a drum that had been well beaten, submitted as terrible 
an object as mortal sight ever rested on. I say I did not 
like to touch him, and one reason was I feared he would 
tumble ; and though I knew not why I should have 
dreaded this, yet the apprehension of it so worked in me 
that for some time it held me idly staring at him. 

But I could not enter the cabin without first scraping 
the snow from the companion door ; and the cold, after I 
had stood a few moments inactive, was so bitter as to set 
me craving for shelter* So I put my hand upon the body, 
and discovered it, as I might have foreseen, frozen to the 
hardness of steel. His coat — if I may call that a coat 
which resembled a robe of snow — fell to within a few 
inches of the deck. Steadying the body with one hand, I 
heartily tweaked the coat with the other, hoping thus to 
rupture the ice upon it ; in doing which I slipped and fell 
on my back, and in falling gave a convulsive kick which, 
striking the feet of the figure, dislodged them from their 
frozen hold of the deck, and down it fell with a mighty 


58 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


bang alongside of me, and with a loud crackling noise, 
like the rending of a sheet of silk. 

I was not hurt, and sprang to my feet with the alacrity 
of fright, and looking at the body, saw that it had man- 
aged by its fall much better than my hands could have 
compassed ; for the snow shroud was cracked and crum- 
bled, slabs of it had broken away leaving the cloth of the 
coat visible, and what best pleased me was the sight of the 
end of a hanger poking out from the skirt of the coat. 

Yet to come at it so as to draw the blade from the scab- 
bard required an intolerable exertion of strength. The 
clothes on this body were indeed like a suit of mail. I 
nev^er could have believed that frost served cloth so. At 
last I managed to pull the coat clear of the hilt of the 
hanger ; the blade was stuck, but after I had tugged a bit 
it slipped out, and I found it a good piece of steel. 

The corpse was habited in jack-boots, a coat of coarse 
thick cloth lined with flannel, under this a kind of blouse 
or doublet of red cloth, confined by a belt with leathern 
loops for pistols. His apparel gave me no clue to the age 
he belonged to ; it was no better, indeed, than a sort of 
masquerading attire, as though the fashions of more than 
one country, and perhaps of more than one age, had gone 
to the habiting of him. He looked a burly, immense 
creature as he lay upon the deck in the same bent attitude 
in which he had stood at the rail, and so dreadful was his 
face, with the singular diabolical expression of leering 
malice caused by the lids of his eyes being half closed, 
that having taken one peep I had no mind to repeat it, 
though I was above ten minutes wrestling with his cloak 
and hanger before I had the weapon fair in my hand. 

I walked to the companion and fell to scraping the snow 
away from it. ’Twas like scratching at mortar between 
bricks. But I worked hard, and presently, with the point 
of the hanger, felt the crevice 'twixUthe door and its jamb, 
after which it was not long before I had carved the door 
out of its plate of ice and snow. 

The wind was now blowing a fresh gale, and the howl- 
ing aloft was extremely melancholy and dismal. I could 
not see the ocean, but I heard it thundering with a hollow 
roaring note ; and the sharp reports and distant sullen 
crashing noises, with nearer convulsions within the ice, 
were very frequent. 

My labor warmed me, but it also increased my hunger. 
While I hacked and scraped at the snow, I was considering 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


59 


whether I should come across anything fit to eat in the 
ship, and if not what I was to do. Here was a vessel as- 
suredly not less than fifty or sixty years old, and even sup- 
posing she was almost new when she fell in with the ice, 
the date of her disaster would still carry her back half a 
century ; so that — and certainly there was much in the ap- 
pearance of the body on the rocks to warrant the conjec- 
ture— she would have been thus sepulchred and fossilized 
for fifty years. 

What, then, was the form of provisions proper for human 
food, such as even a famine-driven stomach could deal 
with, I was likely to find in her ? Would not her crew have 
eaten her bare, devoured the very heart out of her, before 
they perished ? 

These thoughts weighed heavily in me, but I toiled on, 
nevertheless, and, having cleared the door of the snow that 
bound it, I pried it apart with the hanger and then drag- 
ged at it ; but the snow on the deck would not let it open 
far, and, as there was room for me to squeeze through, I 
did not stop to scrape the obstruction away. 

A flight of steps sank into the darkness of the interior, 
and a cold, strange smell floated up with something of dry 
earthiness of flavor and a mingling of leather and timber. 
I fell back a pace to let as much of this smell exhale as 
would before I ventured into an atmosphere that had been 
hermetically bottled by the ice in that cabin since the hour 
when this little door was last closed. Superstition was 
active in me again, and when I peered into the blackness 
at the bottom of the hatch I felt as might a schoolboy on 
the threshold of a haunted room in which he was to be 
locked up as a punishment. 

I put my foot on the ladder and descended very slowly 
indeed, my inclination being strong the other way, and I 
kept on looking downward in a state of ridiculous fright, 
as though at any moment I should be seized by the leg ; 
being in too much confusion of mind to consider it was im- 
possible anything living could be below, while a ghostly 
shadow could not catcii hold of me so as to cause me to 
feel its grasp. But then if fear could reason it would cease 
to be fear. 

On reaching the bottom I remained standing close against 
the ladder^ striving to see into what manner of place 1 was 
arrived. The glare of the whiteness of the decks and rocks 
hung upon mv eyes like a kind of blindness charged with 
fires of several colors, and I could not obtain the faintest 


6o 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


glimpse of any part of this interior outside the sphere of 
the little square of hazy light which lay upon the deck at 
the foot of the steps. The darkness, indeed, was so deep 
that I concluded this was no more than a narrow well 
formed of bulkheads and that the cabi’n was beyond, and 
led to by a door in the bulkhead. 

To test this conjecture I extended my arms in a groping 
posture and stepped a pace forward, feeling to right and 
left, till, having gone five or six paces from the ladder, my 
fingers touched something cold, and feeling it, I passed my 
hand down what I instantly knew, by the projection of the 
nose and the roughness of hair on the upper lip, to be a 
human face ! 

A little reflection might have prepared me for this, but 
I had not reflected, at least in this direction, and was, 
therefore, not prepared ; and the horrible thrill of that black 
chill contact went in an agony through my nerves, and I 
burst into a violent perspiration. 

I backed away with all my hair astir, and then shot up 
the ladder as if the devil had been behind me ; and when I 
reached the deck I was trembling so violently that I had 
to lean against the companion lest my knees should give 
way. Never in all my time had I received such a fright as 
this ; but then I had gone to it in a fright, and was exactly 
in a state of mind to be terrified out of my senses. My soul 
had been rendered sick and weak within me by mental' and 
corporeal suffering ; my loneliness, too, was dreadful, and 
the wilder and more scaring, too, for this, my unhappy as- 
sociation with the dead ; the shrieking in the rigging was 
like the tongue given by endless packs of hunting phantom 
wolves, and the growling and cracking noises of the ice in 
all directions would have made one coming new to this 
desolate scene suppose that the island of ice was full of 
fierce beasts. 

But needs must when Old Nick drives ; I must either 
find courage to enter the schooner and search her, and so 
stand to come across the means to prolong my life, and, 
perhaps, procure my deliverance, or perish of famine and 
frost on deck. 

The companion-door was small, and, being scarce more 
than ajar, I was not surprised that only a very faint light 
entered by it. If the top were removed I doubted not I 
should be able to get a view of the cabin, enough to show 
me where the windows or port-holes were. So I went to 
work with the hanger again, insensibly obtaining a little 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


6i 


Stock of courage from the mere brandishing of it. In half 
an hour I had chipped and cut away the ice around the 
companion, and then found it to be one of those old-fash- 
ioned, clumsy hatch-covers formerly used in certain kinds 
of Dutch ships — namely, a box with a shoulder-shaped lid. 
This lid, though heavy, and fitting witii a tongue, I man- 
aged to unship, on which the full square of the hatch lay 
open to the sky. 

The light gave me heart. Once more I descended. 
After a few moments the bewildering dazzle of the snow 
faded off my sight, and I could see very distinctly. 

The cabin was a small room. The forward part lay in 
shadow, but I could distinguish the outline of the main- 
mast amidships of the bulkhead there. In the centre of 
this cabin was a small, square table, supported by iron pins 
that pierced through stanchions in such a manner that the 
table could at will be raised to the ceiling, and there left 
for the convenience of space. 

At this table, seated upon short, quaintly wrought 
benches, and immediately facing each other, were two 
men. They were incomparably more lifelike than the 
frozen figures. The one whose back was upon the hatch- 
way ladder, being the man whose face I had stroked, 
sat upright in the posture of a man about to start up, 
both hands upon tlie rim of the table, and his counte- 
nance raised as if, in a sudden terror and agony of death, 
he had darted a look to God. So inimitably expressive 
of life was his attitude that, though I knew him to be a 
frozen body as perished as if he had died with Adam or 
Noah, I was sensible of a breathless wonder in me that 
the affrighted start with which he seemed to be rising 
from the table was not continued — that, in short, he did 
not spring to his feet with the cry that you seemed to 
hear in his posture. 

The other figure layover the table with his face buried 
in his arms. He wore no covering to his head, which was 
bald, yet his hair on either side was plentiful and lay upon 
his arms, and his beard fluffing up about his buried face 
gave him an uncommon shaggy appearance. The other 
had on a round fur cap, with lappets for the ears. His 
body was muffled in a thick, ash-colored coat ; his hair 
was also abundant, curling long and black down his back ; 
his cheeks were smooth, manifestly through nature rather 
than the razor, and the ends of a small black mustache 
were twisted up to his eyes. These were the only occu- 


62 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 

pants of the cabin, which their presence rendered terribly 
ghastly and strange. 

There was, perhaps, something in keeping with the icy 
spell of death upon this vessel in the figure of the man who 
was bowed over the table, for he looked as though he 
slept ; but tlie other mocked the view with a spectrum of 
the fever and passion of life. You would have sworn he 
had beheld tlie skeleton hand of the Shadow reaching out 
of the dimness for him ; that he had started back with a 
curse and cry of horror, and expired in the very agony of 
his affrighted recoil. 

The interior was extremely plain ; the bulkheads of a 
mahogany color, the decks bare, and nothing in the form of 
an ornament saving a silver crucifix hanging by a nail to the 
trunk of the mainmast, and a cage with a frozen bird of gor- 
geous plumage suspended to the bulkhead near the hatch. 
A small lantern of an old pattern dangled over the table, 
and I noticed that it contained two or three inches of 
candle. Abaft the hatchway was a door, on the starboard 
side, which I opened, and found a narrow, dark passage. 
I could not pierce it with my eyes beyond a few feet ; but 
perceiving within this range the outline of a little door, I 
concluded that here were the berths in which the master 
and his mates slept. There was nothing to be done in the 
dark, and I bitterly lamented that I had left my tinder- 
box and flint in the boat, for then I could have lighted the 
candle in the lantern. 

“Perhaps,” thought I, “one of those figures may have 
a tinder-box upon him.” 

Custom was now somewhat hardening me ; moreover, I 
was spurred on by a mortal anxiety to discover if there 
was any kind of food to be met with in the vessel. So I 
stepped up to the figure whose face I had touched, and 
felt in his pockets ; but neither on him nor on the other did 
I find what I wanted, though I was not a little astonished 
to discover in the pockets of the occupants of so small and 
humble a ship as this schooner a fine gold watch, as rich 
as the one I had brought away from the man on the rocks, 
and more elegant in shape ; a gold snuff-box set with dia- 
monds, several rings of beauty and value lying loose in 
the breeches pockets of the man whose face was hidden, a 
handful of Spanish pieces in gold, handkerchiefs of fine 
silk, and other articles, as if, indeed, these fellows had been 
overhauling a parcel of booty and then carelessly returned 
the contents to their pockets. 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


63 


But what I needed was the means of obtaining a light, 
so, after casting about, I thought I would search the body- 
on deck, and went to it, and, to my great satisfaction, dis- 
covered what I wanted in the pocket I dropped my hand 
into, though I had to rip open the mouth of it away from 
the snow with the hanger. 

I returned to the cabin and lighted the candle, and car- 
ried the lantern into the black passage or corridor. There 
were four small doors, belonging to as many berths ; I 
opened the first and entered a compartment that smelled 
so intolerably stale and musty that I had to come into the 
passage agat^ and fetch a few breaths to humor my nose 
to the odor. As in the cabin, however, so here, I found 
this noxiousness of air was not caused by putrefaction or 
any tainting qualities of a vegetable or animal kind, but 
by the deadness of the pent-up air itself, as the foulness of 
bilge-water is owing to its being imprisoned from air in the 
bottom of the hold. 

I held up the lantern and looked about me. A glance 
or two satisfied me that I was in a room that had been ap- 
propriated to the steward and his mates. A number of 
dark objects, which on inspection I found to be hams, 
were stowed snugly away in battens under the ceiling or 
upper deck ; a cask half full of flour stood in a corner ; 
near it lay a large, coarse sack, in which was a quantity of 
biscuit, a piece of which I bit and found it as hard as flint 
and tasteless, but not in the least degree mouldy. There 
were four shelves running athwartships full of glass, 
knives and forks, dishes, and so forth, some of the glass 
very choice and elegant, and many of the dishes and plates 
also very fine, fit for the greatest nobleman’s table. Under 
the lower shelf, on the deck, lay a sack of what I believed 
to be black stones, until, after turning one or two of them 
about, it came upon me that they were, or had been, I 
should say, potatoes. 

Not to tease you with too many particulars under this 
head, let me briefly say that in this larder or steward’s 
room I found, among other things, several cheeses, a 
quantity of candles, a great earthenware pot full of peas, 
several pounds of tobacco, about thirty lemons, along with 
two small casks and three or four jars, manifestly of 
spirits, just of what kind I could not tell. I took a stout, 
sharp knife from one of the shelves, and, pulling down 
one of the hams, tried to cut it, but I might as well have 
striven to slice a piece of marble. I attempted next to cut 


64 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


a cheese, but this was frozen as hard as the ham. The 
lemons, candles, and tobacco had the same astonishing 
quality of stoniness, and nothing yielded to the touch but 
the flour. I laid hold of one of "the jars and thought to 
pull the stopper out, but it was frozen hard in the hole it 
fitted, and I was five minutes hammering it loose. When 
it was out I inserted a steel — used for the sharpening of 
knives — and found the contents solid ice, nor was there 
the faintest smell to tell me what the spirit or wine was. 

Never before did plenty offer itself in so mocking a 
shape. It was the very irony of abundance — substantial 
ghostliness and a Barmecide’s feast to my achi«g stomach. 

But there was biscuit not unconquerable by teeth used 
to the fare of the sea life, and picking up a whole one, I 
sat me down on the edge of a cask and fell a-munching. 
One reflection, however, comforted me, namely, that this 
petrifaction by freezing had kept the victuals sweet. I 
was sure there was little here that might not be thawed 
into relishable and nourishing food and drink by a good 
fire. The sight of tliese stores took such a weight off my 
mind that no felon reprieved from death could feel more 
elated than I. My forebodings had come to naught in this 
regard, and here, for the moment, my grateful spirits were 
content to stop. 


CHAPTER XI. 

I MAKE FURTHER DISCOVERIES. 

So long as I moved about and worked I did not feel the 
cold ; but if I stood or sat for a couple of minutes I felt 
the nip of it in my very marrow. Yet, fierce as the cold 
was here, it was impossible it could be comparable with 
the rigors of the parts in which this schooner had origin- 
ally got locked up in the ice. No doubt if I died on deck 
my body would be frozen as stiff as the figure on the 
rocks ; but though it was very conceivable that I might 
perish of cold in the cabin by sitting still, I was sure the 
temperature below had not the severity to stonify me to 
the granite of the men at the table. 

Still, though a greater degee of cold — cold as killing as 
if the world had fallen sunless — did unquestionably exist 
in thos6 latitudes whence this ice with the schooner in its 
hug had floated, it was so bitterly bleak in this interior 


THE FROZEN FIR ATE. 


6S 


that 'twas scarcely imaginable it could be colder elsewhere ; 
and as I rose from the cask, shuddering to the heart with 
the frosty, motionless atmosphere, my mind naturally went 
to the consideration of a fire by which I might sit and toast 
myself. 

I put a bunch of candles in my pocket — they were as 
hard as a parcel of marline-spikes — and took the lantern 
into the passage and inspected the next room. Here was 
a cot hung up by hooks, and a large black chest stood in 
cleats upon the deck ; some clothes dangled from pins 
in the bulkhead, and upon a kind of tray fixed upon short 
legs, and serving as a shelf, were a miscellaneous bundle 
of boots, laced waistcoats, three-cornered hats, a couple of 
swords, three or four pistols, and other objects not very 
distinguishable by the candle-light. There was a port 
which I tried to open, but found it so hard frozen I 
should need a handspike to start it. There were three 
cabins besides this ; the last cabin, that is, the one in the 
stern, being the biggest of the lot. Each had its cot, and 
each also had its own special muddle and litter of boxes, 
clothes, firearms, swords, and the like. 

Indeed, by this time I was beginning to see how it was. 
The suspicion that the watches and jewelry I had discov- 
ered on the bodies of the men had excited was now con- 
firmed, and I was satisfied that this schooner had been a 
pirate or buccaneer, of what nationality I could not yet 
divine — methought Spanish, from the costume of the first 
figure I had encountered ; and I was also convinced by 
the brief glance I directed at the things in the cabin, par- 
ticularly the wearing apparel, and the make and appear- 
ance of the firearms, that she must have been in this 
position for upward of fifty years. 

The thought awed me greatly ; twenty years before I 
was born those two men were sitting dead in the cabin ! 
he on deck was keeping his blind and silent look-out ; he 
on the rocks with his hands locked upon his knees sat 
sunk in blank and frozen contemplation ! 

Every cabin had its port, and there were ports iu the 
vessel’s side opposite, but on reflection I considered that 
the cabin would be the warmer for their remaining closed, 
and so I came away and entered the great cabin afresh, 
bent on exploring the forward part. 

I must tell you that the mainmast, piercing the upper 
deck, came down* close against the bulkhead that formed 
the forward wall of the cabin, and on approaching tliis 

5 


66 


THE FROZE H PIRATE, 


partition, the daylight being broad enough now that the 
hatch lay open on top, I remarked a sliding-door on the 
larboard side of the mast. I put my shoulder to it and 
very easily ran it along its grooves, and then found 
myself in the way of a direct communication with all the 
fore portion of the ^chooner. The arrangement indeed 
was so odd that I suspected a piratical device in this 
uncommon method of opening out at will the whole range 
of deck. The air here was as vile as in the cabins, and I 
had to wait a bit. 

On entering I discovered a little compartment with 
racks on either hand filled with small-arms. I afterward 
counted one hundred and thirteen muskets, blunderbusses, 
and fusils, all of an antique kind, while the sides of the 
vessel were hung with pistols, great and little ; boarding- 
pikes, cutlasses, hangers, and other sorts of sword. This 
armory was a sight to set me walking very cautiously, for 
it was not likely that powder should be wanting in a ship 
thus equipped ; and where was it stored ? 

There was another sliding-door in the forward parti- 
tion ; it stood open, and I passed through into what I im- 
mediately saw was the cook-house. I turned the lantern 
about and discovered every convenience for dressing food. 
The furnaces were of brick, and the oven was a great one 
— great, I mean, for the size of the vessel. There were 
pots, pans, and kettles in plenty, a dresser with drawers, 
dishes of tin and earthenware, a Dutch clock — in short, 
such an equipment of kitchen furniture as you would not 
expect to find in the galley of an Indiaman built to carry 
two or three hundred passengers. About half a chaldron 
of small coal lay heaped in a wooden angular fence fitted 
to the ship’s side, for the sight of which I thanked God. 
I held the lantern to the furnace, and observed a crooked 
chimney rising to the deck and passing through it. The 
mouth or head of it was no doubt covered by the snow, 
for I had not noticed any such object in the survey I had 
taken of the vessel above. Strange, I thought, that those 
men should have frozen to death with the material in the 
ship for keeping a fire going. But then my whole dis- 
covery I regarded as one of those secrets of the deep 
which defy the utmost imagination and experience of man 
to explain them. Enough that here was a schooner which 
had been interred in a sepulchre of ice, as I might ration- 
ally conclude, for nearly half a century ; that there were 
dead men in her who looked to have been frozen to death ; 


THE FROZEN- P/RATE. 


by 


that she was apparently stored with miscellaneous booty ; 
that she was powerfully armed for a craft of her size, and 
had manifestly gone crowded with men. All this was 
plain, and I say it was enough for me. If she had papers 
they were to be met with presently, otherwise conjecture 
would be mere imbecility in the face of those white and 
frost-bound countenances and iron silent lips. 

I thrust back another sliding-door and entered the ship’s 
forecastle. The ceiling, as I choose to call the upper 
deck, was lined with hammocks, and the floor was covered 
with chests, bedding, clothes, and I know not what else. 
The ringing of the wind on high did not disturb the still- 
ness, and I cannot convey the impression produced on 
my mind by this extraordinary scene of confusion beheld 
amid the silence of that tomblike interior. I stood in the 
doorway, not having the courage to venture farther. For 
all I knew many of those hammocks might be tenanted ; 
for as this kind of bed expresses by its curvature the 
rounded shape of a seaman, whether it be empty or not, 
so it is impossible by merely looking to know whether it 
is occupied or vacant. The dismalness of the prospect 
was of course vastly exaggerated by the feeble light of 
the candle, which, swaying in my hand, flung a swarming 
of shadows upon the scene, through which the hammocks 
glimmered wan and melancholy. 

I came away in a fright, sliding the door to in my hurry 
with a bang that fetched a groaning echo out of the hold. 
If this ship were haunted, the forecastle would be the 
abode of the spirits ! 

Before I could make a fire the chimney must be cleared. 
Among the furniture in the arms-room were a number of 
spade-headed spears, the spade as wide as the length of a 
man’s thumb, and about a foot long, mounted on light, 
thin wood. Armed with one of these weapons, the like of 
which is to be met with among certain South American 
tribes, I passed into the cabin to proceed on deck ; but 
though I knew the two figures were there, the coming 
upon them afresh struck me with as much astonishment 
and alarm as if I had not before seen them. The man 
starting from the table confronted me on this entrance, 
and I stopped dead to that astounding living posture of 
terror, even recoiling, as though he were alive indeed, and 
was jumping up from the table in his amazement at my 
apparition. 

The brilliance of the snow was very striking after the 


68 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


dusk of the interiors I had been penetrating. The glare 
seemed like a blaze of white sunshine ; yet it was the 
dazzle of the ice and nothing more, for the sun was hid- 
den, the fairness of the morning was passed ; the sky was 
lead-colored down to the ocean line, with a quantity of 
smoke-brown scud flying along it. The change had been 
rapid, as it always is hereabouts. The wind screamed 
with a piercing whistling sound through the frozen rig- 
ging, splitting in wails and bounding in a roar upon the 
adamantine peaks and rocks ; the cracking of the ice was 
loud, continuous, and mighty startling ; and these sounds, 
combined with the thundering of the sea and the fierce 
hissing of its rushing yeast, gave the weather the charac- 
ter of a storm, though as yet it was no more than a fresh 
gale. 

However, though it was frightful to be alone in this 
frozen vault, with no other society than that of the dead, 
not even a sea-fowl to put life into the scene, I could not 
but feel that, be my prospects what they might, for a mo- 
ment I was safe — that is to say, I was immeasurably 
securer than ever I could have been in the boat, which, 
when I emerged into this stormy sound and realized the 
sea that was running outside, I instantly thought of with 
a shudder. Had the rock, I mused, not fallen and liber- 
ated the boat, where should I be now ? Perhaps floating, 
a corpse, fathoms deep under the water, or, if alive, then 
flying before this gale into the south, ever widening the 
distance betwixt me and all chance of my deliverance, and 
every hour gauging more deeply the horrible cold of the 
pole. Indeed I began to understand that I had been 
mercifully diverted from courting a hideous fate, and my 
spirits rose with the emotion of gratitude and hope that 
attends upon preservation. 

I speedily spied the chimney, which showed a head of 
two feet above the deck, and made short work of the snow 
that was frozen in it, as nothing could have been fitter to 
cut ice with than the spade-shaped weapon I carried. This 
done, I returned to the cook-room, and with a butcher’s 
axe that hung against the bulkhead I knocked away one of 
the boards that confined the coal, split it into small pieces, 
and in a short time had kindled a good fire. One does 
not need the experience of being cast away upon an ice- 
berg to understand the comfort of a fire. I had a mind 
to be prodigal, and threw a good deal of coals into the 
furnace, and presently had a noble blaze. The heat was 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


69 


exquisite. I pulled a little bench, after the pattern of 
those on which the men sat in the cabin, to the tire, and, 
with outstretched legs and arms, thawed out of me the 
frost that had lain taut in my flesh ever since the wreck of 
the Laughing Mary. When I was thoroughly warm and 
comforted I took the lantern and went aft to the steward’s 
room, and brought thence a cheese, a ham, some biscuit, 
and one of the jars of spirits, all which 1 carried to the 
cook-room and placed the whole of them in the oven. I 
was extremely hungry and thirsty, and the warmth and 
cheerfulness of the fire set me yearning for a hot meal. 
But how was I to make me a bowl without fresh ^yater ? 
I went on deck and snatched up some snow, but the salt 
in it gave it a sickly taste, and I was not only, certain it 
would spoil and make disgusting whatever I mixed it with 
or cooked in it, but it stood as a drink to disorder my 
stomach and bring on an illness. So, thought I to myself, 
there must be fresh water about — casks enough in the hold 
I dare say; but the hold was not to be entered and explored 
without labor and difficulty, and I was weary and fam- 
ished, and in no temper for hard work. 

In all ships it is the custom to carry one or more casks, 
called scuttlebutts, on deck, into which fresh water is 
pumped for the use of the crew. I stepped along looking 
earnestly at the several shapes of guns, coils 01 rigging, 
hatchways, and the like, upon which the snow lay thick and 
solid, sometimes preserving the mould of the object it cov- 
ered, sometimes distorting and exaggerating it into an un- 
recognizable outline, but perceived nothing that answered 
to the shape of a cask. At last I came to the well in the head, 
past the forecastle deck, and on looking down spied 
among other shapes three bulged and bulky forms. I 
seemed by instinct to know that these were the scuttlebutts 
and went for the chopper, with which I returned and got 
into this hollow, that was four or five feet deep. The snow 
had the hardness of iron ; it took me a quarter of an 
hour of severe labor to make sure of the character of the 
bulky thing I wrought at, and then it proved to be a cask. 
Whatever might be its contents it was not empty, but I 
was pretty nigh spent by the time I had knocked off the 
iron bands and beaten out staves enough to enable me to 
get at the frozen body within. There were three-quarters 
of a cask full. It was sparkling clear ice, and chipping off 
a piece and sucking it, I found it to be very sweet fresh 
water. Thus was my labor rewarded. 


70 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


I cut off as much as, when dissolved, would make a couple 
of gallons, but stayed a minute to regain my breath and take 
a view of this well or hollow before going aft. It was 
formed of the great open head-timbers of the schooner curv- 
ing up to the stem, and by the forecastle deck ending like 
a cuddy front. I scraped at this point and removed enough 
snow to exhibit a portion of a window. It Avas by this win- 
dow I supposed the forecastle was lighted. Out of this 
well forked the bowsprit, with the sprit-sail yard braced 
fore and aft. The whole fabric close to looked more like 
glass than at a distance, owing to the million crystalline 
sparkles of the ice-like snow that coated the structure from 
the vane at the masthead to the keel. 

Well, I clambered on the forecastle deck and returned to 
the cook-room with my piece of ice, struck as I went along 
by the sudden comfortable quality of life the gushing of 
the black smoke out of the chimney put into the ship, and 
how, indeed, it seemed to soften as if by magic the savage 
wilderness and haggard austerity and gale-swept loneli- 
ness of the white rocks and peaks. It was extremely disa- 
greeable and disconcerting to rne to have to pass the ghastly 
occupants of the cabin every time I went in and out ; and 
I made up my mind to get them on deck when I felt equal 
to the work, and cover them up there. The slanting pos- 
ture of the one was a sort of fierce rebuke ; the sleeping 
posture of the other was a dark and sullen enjoinment of 
silence. I never passed them without a quick beat of the 
heart and shortened breathing ; and the more I looked at 
them the keener became the superstitious alarm they ex- 
cited. 

The fire burned brightly, and its ruddy glow was sweet 
as human companionship. I put the ice into a saucepan 
and set it upon the fire, and then pulling the cheese and 
ham out of the oven found them warm and thawed. On 
smelling to the mouth of the jar I discovered its contents 
to be brandy.* Only about an inch deep of it was melted. 
I poured this into a pannikin and took a sup, and a finer 
drop of spirits I never swallowed in all my life ; its elegant 
perfume proved it amazingly choice and old. I fetched a 
lemon and some sugar and speedily prepared a small smok- 
ing bowl of punch. The ham cut readily ; I fried a couple 

* I can give the reader no better idea of the cold of the latitudes in which 
this schooner had lain, than by speaking of the brandy as being frozen. 
This may have happened through its having lost twenty or thirty per cent, 
of its strength. — P. R. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


71 


of stout rashers, and fell to the heartiest and most delicious 
repast I ever sat down to. At any time there is something 
fragrant and appetizing in the smell of fried ham ; conceive 
then the relish that the appetite of a starved, half-frozen, 
shipwrecked man would find in it! The cheese was ex- 
tremely good, and was as sound as if it had been made a 
week ago. Indeed the preservative virtues of the cold 
struck me with astonisliment. Here was I making a fine 
meal off stores which in all probability had lain in this ship 
fifty years, and they ate as choicely as like food of asimilar 
quality ashore. Possibly some of these days science may 
devise a means for keeping the stores of a ship frozen, 
which would be as great a blessing as could befall the 
mariner, and a sure remedy for the scurvy ; for then as 
much fresh meat might be carried as salt, besides other arti- 
cles of a perishing kind. 


CHAPTER XH. 

A LONELY NIGHT. 

I had a pipe of my own in my pocket ; I fetched a small 
block of the black tobacco that was in the pantry, and, 
with some trouble, for it was as hard and dry as glass, 
chipped off a bowlful and fell a-puffing with all the satis- 
faction of a hardened lover of tobacco who has long been 
denied his favorite relish. The punch diffused a pleasing 
glow through my frame, the tobacco was lulling, the heat 
of the fire very soothing, the hearty meal I had eaten had 
also marvellously invigorated me, so that I found my mind 
in a posture to justly and rationally consider my condition, 
and to reason out such probabilities as seemed to be at- 
tached to it. 

First of all, I reflected that, by the usual operation of 
natural laws, this vast seat of “thrilling and thick-ribbed 
ice” in which the schooner lay bound was steadily travel- 
ing to the northward, where in due course it would dis- 
solve, though that would not happen yet. But as it ad- 
vanced so would it carry me nearer to the pathways of 
ships using these seas, and any day might disclose a sail 
near enough to observe such signals of smoke or flag as I 
might best contrive. But supposing no opportunity of 
this kind to offer, tlien I ought to be able to find in the 


72 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


vessel material fit for the construction of a boat, if, indeed, 
I met not with a pinnace of her own stowed under the 
main hatch, for there was certainly no boat on deck. Nay, 
my meditations even carried me further; this was the 
winter season of the Southern Hemisphere, but presently 
the sun would be coming my way, while the ice, on the 
other hand, floated toward him ; if by the wreck and dis- 
solution of the island the schooner was not crushed, she 
must be released, in which case, providing she was tight 
— and my brief inspection of her bottom showed nothing 
wrong with her that was visible through the shroud of 
snow — I should have a stout ship under me in which I 
would be able to lie hove to, or even make shift to sail her 
if the breeze came from the south, and thus take my 
chance of being sighted and discovered. 

Much, I had almost said everything, depended on the 
quantity of provisions I should find in her, and particularly 
on the stock of coal, for I feared I must perish if I had not 
a fire. But there was the hold to be explored yet ; the 
navigation of these waters must have been anticipated by 
the men of the schooner, who were sure to make hand- 
some provision for the cold — and the surer if, as I fancied, 
they were Spaniards. Certainly they might have ex- 
hausted their stock of coal, but I could not persuade my- 
self of this, since the heap in the corner of the coal-room 
somehow or other was suggestive of a good store behind. 

I knew not yet whether more of the crew lay in the 
forecastle, but so far I had encountered four men only. 
If these were all, then I had a right to believe, grounding 
my fancy on the absence of boats, that most of the com- 
pany had quitted the ship, and this they would have done 
early — a supposition that promised me a fair discovery of 
stores. Herein lay my hope ; if I could prolong my life 
for three or four months, then, if the ice was not all gone, 
it would have advanced far north, serving me as a ship 
and putting me in the way of delivering myself, either by 
the sight of a sail, or by the schooner floating free, or by 
my construction of a boat. 

Thus I sat musing, as I venture to think, in a clear- 
headed way. Yet all the same I could not glance around 
without feeling as if I was bewitched. The red shining 
of the furnace ruddily gilded the cook-house ; through 
the after sliding-door went the passage to the cabin in 
blackness ; the storming of the wind was subsided into 
a strange moaning and complaining ; often through the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 




body of the ship came the thrill of a sudden explosion ; 
and haunting all was the sense of the dead men just with- 
out, the frozen desolation of the island, the mighty world 
of waters in which it lay. No ! you can think of no iso- 
lation comparable to this ; and I tremble as I review it, 
for under the thought of the enormous loneliness of that 
time my spirit must ever sink and break down. 

It was melancholy to be without time, so I pulled out 
the fine big gold watch I had taken from the man on the 
rocks and wound it up, and, guessing at the hour, set the 
hands at half-past four. The watch ticked bravely. It was 
indeed a noble piece of mechanism, very costly and glori- 
ous with its jewels, and more than a hint as to the char- 
acter of this schooner ; and had there been nothing else 
to judge by I should still have sworn to her by this watch. 

My pipe being emptied, I threw some more coals into 
the furnace, and putting a candle in the lantern, went aft 
to take another view of the little cabins, in one of which 
I resolved to sleep ; for though the cook-room would hSve 
served me best while the fire burned, I reckoned upon it 
making a colder habitation when the furnace was black 
than those small compartments in the stern. The cold on 
deck gushed down so bitingly through the open compan- 
ion-hatch that I was fain to close it. I mounted the steps 
and with much ado shipped the cover and shut the door, 
by which of course the great cabin, as I call the room in 
which the two men were, was plunged in darkness ; but 
tlie cold was not tolerable, and the parcels of candles in 
the larder rendered me indifferent to the gloom. 

On entering the passage in which were the doors of the 
berths, I noticed an object that had before escaped my 
observation — I mean a small trap-hatch, no bigger than a 
manhole, with a ring for lifting it, midway down the lane. 
I suspected this to be the entrance to the lazarette, and 
putting both hands to the ring pulled the hatch up. I 
sniffed cautiously, fearing foul air, then sinking the lan- 
tern by the length of my arm I peered down, and observed 
the outlines of casks, bales, cases of white wood, chests, 
and so forth. I dropped through the hole on to a cask, 
which left me my head and shoulders above the deck, and 
tlien with the utmost caution stooped and threw the lan- 
tern light around me. But the casks were not powder 
barrels, which perhaps a little reflection might have led 
me to suspect, since it was not to be supposed that any 
man would stow his powder in the lazarette. 


74 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


As I was in the way of settling my misgivings touching 
the stock of food in the schooner, I resolved to push 
through with this business at once, and fetching the chop- 
per went to work upon'these barrels and chests ; and very 
briefly I will tell you what I found. First, I dealt with a 
tierce that proved full of salt beef. There was a whole 
row of these tierces, and one sufficed to express the nature 
of the rest ; there were upward of thirty barrels of pork ; 
one canvas bale I ripped open was full of hams, and of 
these bales I counted half a score. The white cases held 
biscuit. There were several sacks of peas, a number of 
barrels of flour, cases of candles, cheeses, a quantity of 
tobacco, not to mention a variety of jars of several shapes, 
some of which I afterward found to contain marmalade 
and succadoes of different kinds. On knocking the head 
off one cask I found it held a frozen body that by the light 
of the lantern looked as black as ink ; I chipped off a bit, 
sucked it, and found it wine. 

I was so transported by the sight of this wonderful 
plenty that I fell upon my knees in an outburst of grati- 
tude and gave hearty thanks to God for his mercy. There 
was no further need for me to dismally wonder whether 
I was to starve or not ; supposing the provisions sweet, 
here was food enough to last me three or four years. 1 
was so overjoyed and withal curious that I forgot all about 
the time, and flourishing the chopper made the round of 
the lazarette, sampling its freight by individual instances, 
so that by the time I was tired I had enlarged the list I 
have given by discoveries of brandy, beer, oatmeal, oil, 
lemons, tongues, vinegar, rum, and eight or ten other 
matters, all stowed very bunglingly, and in so many dif- 
ferent kinds of casks, cases, jars, and other vessels as 
disposed me to believe that several piratical rummagings 
must have gone to the creation of this handsome and 
plentiful stock of good things. ^ 

Well, thought I, even if there be no more coal in the 
ship than what lies in the cook-house, enough fuel is here 
in the shape of casks, boxes, and the like to thaw me pro- 
visions for six months, besides what I may come across in 
the hold, along with the hammocks, bedding, boxes, and 
so forth in the forecastle, all which would be good to feed 
my fire with. This was a most comforting reflection, and 
I recollect springing out through the lazarette hatch 
with as spirited a caper as ever 1 had cut at any time of my 
life. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


75 


I replaced the hatch-cover, and having resolved on the 
aftermost of the four cabins as my bedroom, entered it to 
see what kind of accommodation it would yield me. I 
hung up the lantern and looked into the cot that was 
slung athwartship, and spied a couple of rugs or blankets, 
which I pulled out, having no .fancy ta lie under them. 
The deck was like an old clothes shop, or the wardrobe of 
a travelling troop of actors. From the confusion in this 
and the adjoining cabins I concluded that there had been 
a rush at the last, a wild overhauling and flinging about of 
clothes for articles of more value hidden among them. 
But just as likely as not the disorder merely indicated the 
slovenly indifference of plunderers to the fruits of a pil- 
lage that had overstocked them. 

The first garment I picked up was a cloak of a sort of 
silk material, richly furred and lined ; all the buttons but 
one had been cut off, and that which remained was silver. 
I spread it in the cot, as it was a soft thing to lie upon. 
Then I picked up a coat of the fashion you will see in 
Hogarth’s engravings ; the coat collar a broad fold, and 
the cuffs to the elbow. This was as good as a rug, and I 
put it into the cot with the other. I inspected others of 
the articles on the deck, and among them recollect a gold- 
laced waistcoat of green velvet, two or three pairs of high- 
heeled shoes, a woman’s yellow sacque, several frizzled 
wigs, silk stockings, pumps — in fine, the contents of the 
trunks of some dandy passengers, long since gathered to 
their forefathers no doubt, even if the gentlemen of this 
sciiooner had not then and there walked them overboard 
or slit their windpipes. But, to be honest, I cannot re- 
member a third of what lay tumbled upon the deck or 
hung against the bulkhead. So far as my knowledge of 
costume went, every article pointed to the date which I 
had fixed upon for this vessel. 

I swept the huddle of things with my foot into a corner, 
and lifting the lids of the boxes saw more clothes, some 
books, a collection of small-arms, acouple of quadrants, and 
sundry rolls of paper which proved to be charts of the is- 
lands of the Antilles and the western South American 
coast, very ill-digested. There were no papers of any 
kind to determine the vessel’s character nor journal to ac- 
quaint me with her story. 

I was tired in my limbs rather than sleepy, and went to 
the cook-room to warm myself at the fire and get me some 
supper, meaning to sit there till the fire died out and then 


76 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


go to rest ; but when I put my knife to the ham I fotrnd 
it as hard frozen as when I had first met with it ; so with 
the cheese ; the brandy was solid, too, and this though 
there had been a fire burning for hours ! I put the things 
into the oven to thaw as before, and sitting down, fell very 
pensive over this severity of cold, which iiad power to 
freeze within a yard or two of the furnace. To be sure the 
fire by my absence had shrunk, and the sliding door be- 
ing open admitted the cold of the cabin ; but the considera- 
tion was, how was I to resist the killing enfoldment of this 
atmosphere ? I had slept in the boat, it is true, and was 
i)one the worse ; and now I was under shelter, with the 
heat of a plentiful bellyful of meat and liquor to warm me ; 
but if wine and ham and cheese froze in an air in which a 
fire had been burning, why not I in my sleep, when there 
was no fire, and life beat weakly, as it does in slumber ? 
Those figures in the cabin were dismal warnings and as- 
surances ; they had been men perhaps stouter and heartier 
than ever I was in their day, but they had been frozen into 
stony images nevertheless, under cover, too, with the ma- 
terials to make a fire, and as much strong waters in their 
lazarette as would serve their schooner to float in. 

Well, thought I, after a spell of melancholy thinking, if 
I am to perish of cold, there’s an end ; it is preordained, 
and it is as easy as drowning, anyhow, and better than hang- 
ing ; and with that I pulled out the ham and found it soft 
enough to cut, finding philosophy (which, as the French 
cynic says, triumphs over past and future ills) not so hard 
because somehow I did not myself then particularly feel 
the cold — I mean, I was not certainly suffering here from 
that pain of frost which I had felt in the open boat. 

Having heartily supped, I brewed a pint of punch, and, 
charging my pipe, sat smoking with my feet against the 
furnace. It was after eight o’clock by the fine watch I 
was wearing. I knew by the humming noise that it was 
blowing a gale of wind outside, and from time to time the 
decks rattled to a heavy discharge of hail. All sounds 
were naturally much subdued to my ear by the ship lying 
in a hollow, and I being in her with the hatches closed; 
but this very faintness of uproar formed of itself a quality 
of mystery very pat to the ghastliness of my surroundings. 
It was like the notes of an elfin storm of necromantic 
imagination ; it was hollow, weak, and terrifying ; and it 
and the thunder of the seas commingling, together with 
the rumbling blasts and shocks of splitting ice, disjointed 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


77 


as by an earthquake, loaded the inward silence with un- 
earthly tones, which my lonely and quickened imagination 
readily furnished with syllables. The lantern diffused but 
a small light, and the flickering of the fire made a move- 
ment of shadows about me. I was separated from the 
great cabin where the figures were by the little arms-room 
only, and the passage to it ran there in blackness. 

It strangely and importunately entered my head to con- 
ceive that though those men were frozen and stirless, thev 
were not dead as corpses are, but as a stream whose cur- 
rent, checked by ice, will flow when the ice is melted. 
Might not life in them be suspended by the cold, not 
ended ? There is vitality in the seed, thotigh it lies a dead 
thing in the hand. Those men are corpses to my eye, but, 
said I to myself, they may have the principles of life in 
them, which heat might call into being. Putrefaction is a 
natural law, but it is balked by frost, and, just as decay is 
hindered by cold, might not the property of life be unaf- 
fected in a body, though it should be numbed in a marble 
form for fifty years ? 

This was a terrible fancy to possess a man situated as I 
was, and it so worked in me that again and again I caught 
myself looking first femward, then aft, as though. Heaven 
help me ! my secret instincts foreboded that at any mo- 
ment I should behold some form from the forecastle, or 
one of those figures in the cabin, stalking in, and coming 
to my side and silently seating himself. I pshawed and 
pished, and querulously asked of myself what manner of 
English sailor was I to suffer such womanly terrors to 
visit me ; but it would not do ; I could not smoke, a cold- 
ness of the heart fell upon me, and set me trembling 
above any sort of shivers which the frost of the air had 
chased through me ; and presently a hollow creak sound- 
ing out of the hold, caused by some movement of the bed 
of ice on which the vessel lay, I was seized with a panic of 
terror and sprang to my feet, and, lantern in hand, made 
for the companion ladder, with a prayer in me for the 
sight of a star. 

I durst not look at the figures, but, setting the light 
down at the foot of the ladder, squeezed through the com- 
panion door on to the deck. My fear was a fever in its 
way, and I did not feel the cold. There was no star to be 
seen, but the whiteness of the ice was flung out in a wild, 
strange glare by the blackness of the sky, and made a 
light of its own. It was the most savage and terrible pic- 


78 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


ture of solitude the invention of man could reach to, yet I 
blessed it for the relief it gave to my ghost-enkindled im- 
agination. No squall was then passing ; the rocks rose 
up on either hand in a ghastly glimmer to the ebony of 
the heavens ; the gale swept overhead in a wild, mad 
blending of whistlings, roarings, and cryings in many 
keys, falling on a sudden into a doleful wailing, then ris- 
ing in a breath to the full fury of its concert ; the sea 
thundered like the cannonading of an electric storm, and 
you would have said that the rending and crackling noises 
of the ice were responses to the crashing blows of the 
balls of shadow-hidden ordnance. But the scene, the up- 
roar, the voices of the wind w^ere real — a better cordial to 
my spirits than a gallon of the mellow’est vintage below ; 
and presently, when the cold was beginning to pierce me, 
my courage was so much better for this excursion into the 
hoarse and black and gleaming realities of the night, that 
my heart beat at its usual measure as I passed through the 
hatch and went again to the cook-room. 

I was, however, sure that if I sat here long, listening 
and thinking, fear would return. A small fire still burned ; 
I put a saucepan on it and popped in a piece of the fresh- 
water ice, but on handling the brandy I found it hard set. 
The heat of the oven w^as not sufficiently great to thaw 
me a dram ; so to save further trouble in this way I took 
the chopper and at one blow split open the jar, and then 
there lay before me the solid body of the brandy, from 
which I chipped off as much as I needed, and thus pro- 
cured a hot and animating draught. 

Raking out the fire, I picked up the lantern and was 
about to go, then halted, considering whether I should not 
stow the frozen provisions away. It was a natural tiiought, 
seeing how precious food was to me. But, alas ! it mat- 
tered not where they lay ; they w’ere as secure here as if 
they were snugly hidden in the bottom of the hold. It 
was the white realm of death ; if ever a rat had crawled in 
this ship it was, in its hiding-place, as stiff and idle as the 
frozen vessel. So I let the lump of brandy, the ice, ham, 
and so forth, rest where they w^ere, and went to the cabin 
I had chosen, involuntarily peeping at the figures as I 
passed, and hurrying the faster because of the grim and 
terrifying liveliness put into the man who sat staring' from 
the table by the swing of the lantern in my hand. 

I shut the door and hung the lantern near the cot, 
having the flint and box in my pocket. There was indeed 


THE FROZEN PIRAl'E. 


79 


an abundance of candles in the vessel ; nevertheless, it was 
my business to husband them with the utmost niggardli- 
ness. How long I was to be imprisoned here, if indeed I 
was ever to be delivered, Providence alone knew ; and to 
run short of candles would add to the terrors of my exist- 
ence by forcing me either to open the hatches and ports 
for light, and so filling the ship with the deadly air outside, 
or living in darkness. There were a cloak and a coat in 
the cot, but tliey would not suffice. The fine cloak I had 
taken from the man on the rocks was on deck, and till now 
I had forgotten it ; there was, however, plenty of apparel 
in tlie corner to serve as wraps, and having chosen enough 
to smother me I vaulted into the cot, and so covered my- 
self that the clothes were above the level of the side of the 
cot. 

I left the lantern burning while I made sure my bed was 
all right, and lay musing, feeling extremely melancholy; 
the hardest part was the thought of those two men watch- 
ing in the cabin. The most fantastic alarms possessed me. 
Suppose their ghosts came to the ship at midnight, and, 
entering their bodies, quickened them into walking ? 
Suppose they were in tlie condition of cataleptics, sen- 
sible of wiiat passed around them, but paralyzed to the 
motionlessness and seeming insensibility of death ? Then 
the very garments under which I lay were of a proper 
kind to keep a man in my situation quaking. My im- 
agination went to work to tell me to whom they had be- 
longed, tlie bloody ends their owners had met at the hands 
of the miscreants who despoiled them. I caught myself 
listening — and there was enough to hear, too, what with 
the subdued roaring of the wind, the splintering of ice, 
the occasional creaking — not unlike a heavy booted tread 
— of the fabric of the schooner — to the blasts of the gale 
against her masts, or to a movement in the bed on which 
she reposed. 

But plain sense came to my rescue at last. I resolved 
to have no more of these night fears, so blowing out the 
candle, I put my head on the coat that formed my pillow, 
resolutely kept my eyes shut, and after a while fell asleep. 


So 


THE FROZEX PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

I EXPLORE THE HOLD AND FORECASTLE. 

It was pitch dark when I awoke, and I conceived it must 
be the middle of the night, but to my astonishment, on 
lighting the lantern and looking at the watch, which I 
had taken the precaution to wind up over night, I saw it 
wanted but twenty minutes to eight o’clock, so tliat I had 
passed tlirough eleven hours of solid sleep. However, it 
was only needful to recollect where I was, and to cast a 
glance at the closed door and port, to understand why it 
was dark. I liad slept fairly warm, and awoke with no 
sensation of cramp ; but the keen air had caused the steam 
of my breath to freeze upon my mouth in such a manner 
that, when feeling the sticky inconvenience I put my fin- 
ger to it, it fell like a little mask ; and I likewise felt the 
pain of cold in my face to such an extent tiiat, had I been 
blistered there, my cheeks, nose, and brow could not have 
smarted more. This resolved me lienceforward to wrap 
up my head and face before going to rest. 

I opened the door and passed out, and observed an 
amazing difference between the temperature of the air in 
which I liad been sleeping and that of the atmosphere in 
the passage — a happy discovery, for it served to assure 
me tiiat, if I was careful to lie under plenty of coverings 
and to keep the outer air excluded, the heat of my body 
would raise the temperature of the little cabin ; nor, pro- 
vided the compartment was ventilated throughout the day, 
was there anything to be feared from the vitiation of the 
air by my own breathing. 

My first business was to light tlie fire and set my break- 
fast to thaw, and boil me a kettle of water ; and while this 
was preparing I went on deck to view the weather and to 
revolve in my mind the routine of the day. On opening 
the door of the companion hatch I was nearly blinded by 
the glorious brilliance of the sunshine on the snow ; after 
the blackness of the cabin it was like looking at the sun 
himself, and I had to stand a full three minutes with my 
liand upon my eyes before I could accustom my sight to 
the dazzling glare. It was fine weather again ; the sky 
over the glass-like masts of the schooner was a clear dark 
blue, witli a few light clouds blowing over it from the 


THE FROZE iV PIRATE. 8l 

southward. The wind had shifted at last ; but, pure as 
the heavens were, the breeze was piping briskly with the 
weight and song of a small gale, and its fangs of frost, even 
in the comparative quiet of the sheltered deck, bit with a 
fierceness that had not been observable yesterday. 

The moment I had the body of the vessel in my sight I 
perceived that she had changed her position since my last 
view of her. Her bows were more raised, and she lay over 
further by the depth of a plank. I stared earnestly at the 
rocky slopes on either hand, but could not have sworn 
their figuration was changed. An eager hope shot into my 
mind, but it quickly faded into an emotion of apprehen- 
sion. It was conceivable, indeed, that on a sudden some 
early day I might find the schooner liberated and afloat, 
and this was the first inspiriting flush ; but then came the 
fear that the disruption and volcanic throes of the ice 
might crush her, a fear rational enough when I saw the 
height she lay above the sea, and how by pressure those 
slopes which formed her cradle might be jammed and 
welded together. The change of her posture, then, fell 
upon me with a kind of shock, and determined me, when 
I had broken my fast, to search her hold for a boat or for 
materials for constructing some ark by which I might 
float out to sea, shpuld the ice grow menacing and force 
me from the schooner. 

I made a plentiful meal, feeling the need of abundance 
of food in such a temperature as this, and heartily grate- 
ful that there was no need why I should stint myself. 
The having to pass the two figures every time I went on 
deck and returned was extremely disagreeable and un- 
nerving, and I considered that, after searching the hold, 
the next duty I owed myself was to remove them on deck, 
and even over the side if possible, for one place below was 
as sure to keep them haunting me as another, and they 
would be as much with me in the forecastle as if I stowed 
them away in the cabin adjoining mine. 

While I ate, my mind was so busy with consiVierations 
of the changefin the ship’s posture during the night that 
it ended in determining me to take a survey of her from 
the outside, and then climb the cliffs to look around be- 
fore I fell to any other work. I fetched the cloak I had 
stripped from the body on the rocks, and thawed and 
warmed it, and put it on, and a noble covering it was, 
thick, soft, and clinging. Then, arming myself with a 
boarding-pike to serve as a pole, I dropped into the fore- 
6 


82 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


chains, and thence stepped on to the ice, and slowly and 
carefully walked around the schooner, examining her 
closely, and boring into the snow upon her side with my 
pike wherever I suspected a hole or indent. I could find 
nothing wrong witli her in this way, though what a thaw 
might reveal I could not know. Her rudder hung frozen 
upon its pintles, and looked as it should. Some little dis- 
tance abaft her rudder, where the hollow or chasm sloped 
to the sea, was a great split three or four feet wide ; this 
had certainly happened in the night, and I must have 
slept as sound as the dead not to hear the noise of it. 
Such a rent as this sufficed to account for the subsidence 
of the after part of the schooner and her further inclina- 
tion to larboard. Indeed, the hollow was now coming to 
resemble the “ways ” on which ships are launched ; and 
you would have conceived by the appearance of it that if 
it should slope a little more yet, off would slide the 
schooner for the sea, and in the right posture too — that is, 
stern on. But I prayed with all my might and main for 
anything but this, ft would have been very well had the 
hollow gone in a gentle declivity to the wash of the sea, 
to the water itself, in short ; but it terminated at the edge 
of a cliff, not very high, indeed, but high enough to war- 
rant the prompt foundering of any vessel that should 
launch herself off it. Happily the keel w*as too solidly 
frozen into tlie ice to render a passage of this description 
possible ; and the conclusion I arrived at after careful in- 
spection was that the sole chance that could offer for the 
delivery of the vessel to her proper element lay in the 
cracking up and disruption of the bed on which she lay. 

Having ended my survey of the schooner, I addressed 
myself to the ascent of the starboard slope, and scaled it 
much more easily than I had yesterday managed to make 
my way over the rocks. I climbed to the highest block 
that was nearest me on the summit, and here I had a very 
large view of the scene. Much to my astonishment, the 
first objects which encountered my eye were four ice- 
bergs, floating detached but close together af a distance of 
about three miles on my side of the northeast trend of the 
island. I counted them and made them four. They swam 
low, and it was very easily seen they had formed part of 
the coast there, though, as the form of the ice that way 
was not familiar to me, and as, moreover, the glare ren- 
dered the prospect very deceptive, I could not distinguish 
where the ruptures were. But one change in the face of 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


S3 

this white country I did note, and that was the entire dis- 
appearance of two of the most beautiful of the little crys- 
tal cities that adorned the northward range. The gale of 
the night had wrought havoc, and the unsubstantiality of 
this dazzling kingdom of ice was made startlingly apparent 
by the evanish ment of the delicate glassy architecture, 
and by those four white hills floating like ships under their 
courses and topsails out upon the flashing hurry and leap- 
ing blue and yeast of tlie water. 

It was blowing harder than I had imagined. The wind 
was extraordinarily sharp, and the full current of it not 
long to be endured on my unsheltered eminence. The 
sea, swelling up from the south, ran high, and was full of 
seething and tumbling noises, and of the roaring of the 
breakers, dashing themselves against the ice in prodigious 
bodies of foam, which so boiled along the foot of the 
cliffs that their fronts, rising out of it, might have passed 
for the spume itself freezing as it leapt into a solid mass 
of glorious brilliance. The eye never explored a scene 
more full of the splendor of light and of vivid color. 
Here and there the rocks shone prismatically, as though 
some flying rainbow had shivered itself upon them and 
lay broken. The blue of the sea and sky were deepened 
into an exquisite perfection of liquid tint by the blinding 
whiteness of the ice, which in exchange was sharpened 
into a wonderful effulgence by the hues above and around 
it. Again and again, along the whole range, far as the 
sight could explore, the spray rose in stately clouds of 
silver, which were scattered by the wind in meteoric scin- 
tillations of surpassing beauty, flashing through the fires 
of the sun like millions of little blazing stars. There were 
twenty different dyes of light in the collection of spires, 
fanes, and pillars near the schooner, whose masts, yards, 
and gear mingled their own particular radiance with that 
of these dainty figures ; and wherever I bent my gaze I 
found so much of sun-tinctured loveliness, and the wild, 
white graces of ice-forms and the dazzle of snow surfaces, 
softening into an azure gleaming in the far blue distances, 
that but for the piercing wind I could have spent the 
whole morning in taking inta my mind the marvellous 
spirit of this ocean picture, forgetful of my melancholy 
condition in the intoxication of this draught of free and 
spacious beauty. 

Satisfied as to the state of the ice and the posture of the 
schooner, viewed from without, I sent a low and piercing 


84 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


gaze along the ocean line, and then returned to the ship. 
The strong wind, the dance of the sea, the grandeur of 
the great tract of whiteness, vitalized by the flying of 
violet cloud shadows along it, had fortified my spirits, and, 
being free (for a while) of all superstitious dread, I deter- 
mined to begin by exploring the forecastle and ascertain- 
ing if more bodies were in the schooner than those two in 
the cabin and the giant form on deck. I threw some coal 
on the fire, and placed an ox tongue along with the cheese 
and a lump of the frozen brandy in a pannikin into the 
oven (for I had a mind to taste the vessel’s stores, and 
thought the tongue would make an agreeable change), 
and then, putting a candle into the lantern, walked very 
bravely to the forecastle and entered it. 

I was prepared for the scene of confusion, but I must 
say it staggered me afresh with something of the force of 
the first impression. Sailors’ chests lay open in all direc- 
tions, and their contents covered the decks. There was 
the clearest evidence here that the majority of the crew 
had quitted the vessel in a violent hurry, turning out their 
boxes to cram their money and jewelry into their pockets, 
and heedlessly flinging dowm their own and the clothes 
which had fallen to their share. This I had every right to 
suppose from the character of the muddle on the floor ; 
for, passing the light over part of it, I witnessed a great 
variety of attire of a kind which certainly no sailor of any 
age ever went to sea with ; not so fine, perhaps, as that 
which lay in the cabins, but very good, nevertheless, par- 
ticularly the linen. I saw several wigs, beavers of the kind 
that was formerly carried under the arm, women’s silk 
shoes, petticoats, pieces of lace, silk, and so forth ; all di- 
rectly assuring me that what I viewed was the contents 
of passengers’ luggage, together with consignments of 
such freight as the pirates would seize and divide, every 
man filling his chest. Perhaps there was less on the whole 
than I supposed, the litter looking great by reason of 
everything having been torn open and flung down loose. 

I trod upon these heaps with little concern ; they ap- 
peared to me only as a provision for my fire should I be 
disappointed in my search for coal. The hammocks obliged 
me to move with a stooped head ; it was only necessary to feel 
them with my hand — that is, to test their weight by pushing 
them in the middle — to know if they were tenanted. Some 
were heavier than the others, but all of them much lighter 
than they would have been had they contained human 


rilE FROZEN P/RATE. 


85 


bodies ; and by this rapid method I satisfied my mind that 
there were no dead men here as fully as if I had looked 
into each separate hammock. 

This discovery was exceedingly comforting, for, though 
I do not know that I should have meddled with any frozen 
man had I found him in this place, his being in the fore- 
castle would have rendered me constantly uneasy, and it 
must have come to my either closing this part of the ship 
and shrinking from it as from a spectre -ridden gloom, or 
to my disposing of the bodies by dragging them on deck — - 
a dismal and hateful job. There were no ports, but a 
liatch overhead. Wanting light — the candle making the 
darkness but little more than visible — I fetched from the 
arms-room a handspike that lay in a corner, and, mounting 
a chest, struck at the hatch so heartily that the ice cracked 
all around it and the cover rose. I pushed it off, and 
down rolled the sunshine in splendor. 

Everything was plain now. In many places, glittering 
among the clothes, were gold and silver coins, a few silver 
ornaments such as buckles and watches — things not missed 
by the pirates in the transport of their flight. In kicking 
a coat aside, I discovered a couple of silver crucifixes 
bound together, and close by was the hilt of a sword 
broken short off for the sake of the metal it was of. No- 
thing ruder than this interior is imaginable. The men 
must have been mighty put to it for room. There was a 
window in the head, but the snow veiled it. May be the 
rogues messed together aft, and only used the forecastle to 
lie in. Right under the hatch, where the light was 
strongest, was a dead rat. I stooped to pick it up, mean- 
ing to fling it on to the deck, but its tail broke off at the 
rump like a pipe-stem. 

Close against the after bulkhead, that separated the fore- 
castle from the cook-room, was a little liatch. There was 
a quantity of wearing apparel upon it, and I should have 
missed it but for catching sight of some three inches of 
the dark line the cover made in the deck. On clearing 
away the clothes I perceived a ring similar to that in the 
lazarette hatch, nnd it rose to my first drag and left me the 
hold yawning black below. I peered down and observed 
a stout stanchion traversed by iron pins for the hands and 
feet. The atmosphere was nasty, and to give it time to 
clear I went to the cook-house and warmed myself before 
the fire. 

The fresh air blowing down the forecastle hatch speedily 


86 


THE EROZEiV E/RATE. 


sweetened the hold. I lowered the lantern and followed, 
and found myself on top of some rum or spirit casks, 
which on my hitting them returned me a solid note. 
There was a forepeak forward in the bows, and the casks 
were stowed to the bulkhead of it ; the top of this bulk- 
head was open four feet from the upper deck, and on 
holding the lantern over, and putting my head through, I 
saw a quantity of coals. If the forepeak went as low as 
the vessel’s floor, then I calculated there would not be 
less than fifteen tons of coal in it. This was a noble dis- 
covery to fall upon, and it made me feel so happy that I 
do not know that the assurance of my being immediately 
rescued from this island could have given a lighter pulse 
to my heart. 

The candle yielded a very small light, and it was diffi- 
cult to see above a yard or so ahead or around. I turned 
my face aft, and crawled over the casks and came to under 
the main hatch, where lay coils of hawser, buckets, blocks 
and the like, but there was no pinnace, though here she 
had been stowed, as a sailor would have promptly seen. 
A little way beyond, under the great cabin, was the powder 
magazine, a small bulkheaded compartment with a little 
door, atop of which was a small bull’s eye lamp. I peered 
warily enough, you will suppose, into this place, and 
made out twelve barrels of powder. I heartily wished 
them overboard, and 3^et, after all, they was not very much 
more dangerous than the wine and spirits in the lazarette 
and forehold. 

The run remained to be explored — the after-part, I 
mean, under the lazarette deck to the rudder-post — but I 
had seen enough ; crawling about that black interior was 
cold, lonesome, melancholy work, and it was rendered 
peculiarly arduous by the obligation of caution imposed 
by my having to bear a light amid a freight mainly 
formed of explosives and combustible matter. I had 
found plenty of coal, and that sufficed. So I returned by 
the same road I had entered, and sliding to the bulkhead 
door to keep the cold of the forecastle out of the cook- 
room, I stirred the fire into a blaze and sat down before it 
to rest and think. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


87 


CHAPTER XIV. 

AN EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE. 

After the many great mercies which had been vouch- 
safed me, such as my being the only one saved of all the 
crew of the Laughing Mary, my deliverance frcmi the dan- 
gers of an open boat, my meeting with this schooner and 
discovering within her everything needful for the support 
of life, 1 should have been guilty of the basest ingratitude 
had I repined because there was no boat in the ship. Yet 
for all that I could not but see it was a matter that con- 
cerned me very closely. Should the vessel be crushed 
what was to become of me ? It was easy to propose to 
myself the making of a raft or the like of such a fabric ; 
but everything was so hard frozen that, being single- 
handed, it was next to impossible I should be able to put 
together such a contrivance as would be fit to live in the 
smallest sea-way. 

However, I was resolved not to make myself melancholy 
with these considerations. The good fortune that liad at- 
tended me so far might accompany me to the end, and 
maybe I was the fitter just then to take a hopeful view of 
my condition because of the cheerfulness awakened in me 
by the noble show of coal in the forepeak. At twelve 
o’clock by the fine watch in my pocket I got my dinner. 
I had a mind for a lighter drink than brand v, and went to 
the lazarette and cut out a block of the wine in the cask I 
had opened ; I also knocked out the head of a tierce of 
beef, designing a hearty regale for supper. You will 
smile, perhaps, that I should talk so much of my eating ; 
but if on shore, amid the security of existence there, it is 
the one great business of life, that is to say, the one great 
business of life after love, what must it be to a poor ship- 
wrecked wretch like me, who had nothing else to think of 
but his food ? 

Yet I could not help smiling when I considered how I 
was carrying my drink about in my fingers. What the 
wine was I do not know ; it looked like claret, but was 
somewhat sweet, and was the most generous wine I ever 
tasted, spite of my having to drink it warm, for if I let the 
cup out of my hand to cool, lo ! when I looked it w'as ice ! 

While I sat smoking my pipe it entered my head to 


88 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


presently turn those two silent gentlemen in the cabin out 
of it. It was a task from which I shrunk, but it must be 
done. To be candid, I dreaded the effects of their dis- 
mal companionship on my spirits. I had been in the 
schooner two days only ; I had been heartened by the 
plenty I had met with, a sound night’s rest, the fire, and 
my escape from the fate that had certainly overtaken me 
had I gone away in the boat. But being of a supersti- 
tious nature, and never a lover of solitude, 1 easily guessed 
that in a few days the weight of my loneliness would come 
to press very heavily upon me, and that if I suffered those 
figures to keep the cabin I should find myself lying under 
a kind of horror which might end in breaking down my 
manhood and perhaps in unsettling my reason. 

But how was I to dispose of them ? I meditated this 
matter while I smoked. First I thought I would drag 
them to the fissure or rent in the ice just beyond the stern 
of the schooner and tumble them into it. But even then 
they would still be wuth me, so to speak — 1 mean, they 
would be neighbors, though out of sight ; and my eagerness 
was to get them away from this island altogether, which 
was only to be done by casting them into the sea. Why, 
though I did not mention the matter in its place, I was as 
much haunted last night by the man on deck and the meditat- 
ingfigure on the rocks as by the fellows in the cabin ; and, 
laugh as you may at my weakness, I do candidly own my 
feeling was, if I did not contrive that the sea should carry 
those bodies away, I should come before long to think of 
them as alive, no matter what part of the island I might 
bear them to, and at night-time start at every sound, hear 
their voices in the wind, see their shapes in the darkness, 
and even by day dread to step upon the cliffs. 

That such fancies should possess me already shows how 
necessary it was I should lose no time to provide against 
their growth ; so I settled my scheme thus : first I was to 
haul the figures as best I could on to the deck ; then, there 
being three, to get them over the side, and afterward by 
degrees to transport the four of them to some steep whence 
they would slide of themselves into the ocean. Yet so 
much did I dread the undertaking, and abhor the thought 
of the tedious time I foresaw it would occupy me, that I 
cannot imagine any other sort of painful and distressing 
work that would not have seemed actually agreeable as 
compared with this. 

My pipe being smoked out, I stepped into the cabin, 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


89 


and, ascending the ladder, threw off the companion cover 
and opened the doors, and then went to the man that had 
his back to the steps, but my courage failed me ; he was 
so lifelike, there was so wild and fierce an earnestness in 
the expression of his face, so inimitable a picture of horror 
in his starting posture, that my hands fell to my side and 
I could not lay hold on him. I will not stop to analyze 
my fear or ask why, since I knew that this man was dead, 
he should have terrified me as surely no living man could ; 
1 can only repeat that the prospect of touching him, and 
laying him upon the deck and then dragging him up the 
ladder, was indescribably fearful to me, and I turned away, 
shaking as if I had the ague. 

But it had to be done, nevertheless ; and after a great 
deal of reasoning and self-reproach I seized him on a sud- 
den, and, kicking away the bench, let him fall to the deck. 
He was frozen as hard as stone and fell like stone, and I 
looked to see him break, as a statue might that falls lump- 
ishly. His arms remaining raised put him into an attitude 
of entreaty to me to leave him in peace ; but I had some- 
what mastered myself, and the hurry and tumult of my 
spirits were a kind of hot temper ; so catching him by the 
collar I dragged him to the foot of the companion steps, 
and then with infinite labor and a number of sickening 
pauses’hauled him up the ladder to the deck. 

I let him lie and returned, weary and out of breath. He 
had been a very fine man in life, of beauty, too, as was to 
be seen in the shape of his features and the particular ele- 
gance of his chin, despite the distortion of his last unspeak- 
able dismay ; and with his clothes I guessed his weight 
came hard upon two hundred pounds, no mean burden to 
haul up a ladder. 

I went to the cook-house for a dram and to rest myself, 
and then came back to the cabin and looked at the other 
man. His posture has been already described. He made 
a very burly figure in his coat, and if his weight did not 
exceed the other’s it was not likely to be less. Nothing 
of his head was visible but the baldness on the top and 
the growth of hair that ringed* it, and the fluffing up of 
his beard about his arms in which his face was sunk. I 
touched his beard with a shuddering finger, and noted 
that the frost had made every hair of it as stiff as wire. It 
would not do to stand idly contemplating him, for already 
there was slowly creeping into me a dread of seeing his 
face ; so I took hold of him and swayed him from the 


90 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


table, and he fell upon the deck sideways, preserving his 
posture, so that his face remained hidden. I dragged him 
a little way, but he was so heavy and his attitude rendered 
him as a burden so surprisingly cumbrous that 1 was 
sure I could never of my own strength haul him up the 
ladder. Yet neither was it tolerable that he should be 
there. I thought of contriving a tackle called a whip, and 
making one end fast to him and taking the other end to 
the little capstan on the main deck ; but on inspecting the 
capstan I found that the frost had rendered it immovable, 
added to which there was nothing whatever to be done 
with the iron-hard gear, and therefore I had to give that 
plan up. 

Then, thought I, if I was to put him before the fire, he 
might presently thaw into some sort of suppleness, and so 
prove not harder than the other to get on deck. I liked 
the idea and without more ado dragged him laboriously 
into the cook-room and laid him close to the furnace, 
throwing in a little pile of coal to make the fire roar. 

I then went on deck and easily enough, the deck being 
slippery, got my first man to where the huge fellow was 
that had sentineled the vessel when I first looked down 
upon her ; but when I viewed the slopes, broken into 
rocks, which I, though unburdened, had found hard 
enough to ascend, I was perfectly certain I should never 
be able to transport the bodies to the top of the cliffs. I 
must either let them fall into the great split astern of the 
ship, or lower them over the side and leave the hollow 
in which the schooner lay to be their tomb. 

I paced about, not greatly noticing the cold in the little 
valley, and relishing the brisk exercise, scheming to con- 
vey the bodies to the sea, for I was passionately in earnest 
in wishing the four of them away ; but to no purpose. I 
had but my arms, and scheme as I would, I could not 
make them stronger than they were. It was still blowing 
a fresh, bright gale from the south ; the sea, as might be 
known by the noise of it, beat very h.eavily against the 
cliffs of ice; and the extremity of the hollow where it 
opened to the ocean but without showing it, was again and 
again veiled by a vast cloud of spray, the rain of which I 
could hear ringing like volleys of shot as the wind smote 
it and drove it with incredible force against the rocks past 
the brow of the north slope. I thought to myself there 
should be power in this wind to quicken the sliding of 
even so powerful a berg as this island northward. Every 


I'lIE FR0ZP:N PIRA7'/-:. 


9 


day should steal it by something, however inconsiderable 
nearer to warmer regions, and no gale, nay, no gentle 
swell even, but must help to crack and loosen it to pieces. 
“Oh,” cried I, “for the power to rupture this bed, that 
the schooner might slip into the sea? Think of her run- 
ning north before such a gale as this, steadily bearing me 
toward a more temperate clime and into the road of 
ships ! ” I clenched my hands with a wild yearning in my 
heart. Should I ever behold my country again ? Should 
I ever meet a living man ? The white and frozen steeps 
glared a bald reply ; and I heard nothing but menace 
in the shrill noises of the wind and the deep and thunder- 
erous roaring of the ocean. 

It was miglity comforting, however, on returning to the 
cabin to find it vacant, to be freed from the scare of the 
sight of the two silent figures. I drew my breath more 
easily and stopped to glance around. It was the barest 
cabin I was ever in — uncarpeted, with no other seats than 
the little benches. I looked at the crucifix, and guessed 
from the sight of it that, whatever might be the vessel’s na- 
tion, she had not been sailed by Englishmen. I peeped into 
poor Polly’s cage — if a parrot it was — and the sight of the 
rich plumage carried my imagination to skies of brass, to 
the mysterious green solitude of tropic forests, to islands 
fringed with silver surf, in whose sunny flashing sported 
nude girls of faultless form showing their teeth of pearl 
in merry laughter, winding amorously with the blue billow, 
and filling the aromatic breeze with the melody of their 
language of the sun. Fla ! thought I, sailors see some 
changes in their time ; and with a hearty sigh I stepped 
into the cook-room. 

I started, stopped, and fell back a pace with a cry. 
When I had put the figure before the fire he was in the 
same posture in which he had sat at the table, that is, lean- 
ing forward with his face hid in his arms ; I had laid him 
on his side, with his face to the furnace, and in that atti- 
tude you would have supposed him a man sound asleep 
with his arms over his face to shield it from the heat. But 
now, to my unspeakable astonishment, he lay on his back, 
with his arms sunk to his side and resting on the deck, and 
his face upturned. 

I stared at him from the door as if he was the Fiend 
himself. I could scarce credit my senses, and my conster- 
nation was so great that I cannot conceive of any man ever 
having labored under a greater fright. I faintly ejaculated 


THE FROZE IV P IRATE. 


Good God! ” several times, and could hardly prevent my 
legs from running away with me. You see, it was certain 
lie must have moved of his own accord to get upon his 
back. I was prepared for the fire to thaw him into limber- 
ness, and had I found him straightened somewhat I should 
not have been surprised. But there was no power in fire 
to stretch him to his full length, and turn him over on his 
back. What living or ghostly hand had done this thing? 
Did spirits .walk this schooner after all? Had I missed of 
something more terrible than any number of dead men in 
searching the vessel ? 

I had made a great fire, and its liglit was strong, and 
there was also the light of the lantern ; but the furnace 
flames played very lively, completely overmastering the 
steady illumination of the candle, and the man’s figure was 
all a-twitch with moving shadows, and a hundred fantastic 
shades seemed to steal out of the side and bulkheads and 
disappear upon my terrified gaze. Then, thought I, sup- 
pose after all that man should be alive, the vitality in him 
set flowing by the heat? I minded myself of my own 
simile of the current checked by frost, yet retaining unim- 
paired the principle of motion ; and getting my agitation 
under some small control, I approached the body on tiptoe 
and held the lantern to its face. 

He looked a man of sixty years of age ; his beard was 
gray and very long, and lay upon his breast like a cloud 
of smoke. His eyes were closed ; the brows shaggy, and 
the dark scar of a sword wound ran across his forehead 
from the corner of the left eye to the top of the right 
brow. His nose was long and hooked, but the repose in 
his countenance, backed by the vague character of the 
light in which I inspected him, left his face almost expres- 
sionless. I was too much alarmed to put my ear to his 
mouth to mark if he breathed, if indeed the noise of the 
burning fire would have permitted me to distinguish his 
respiration. I drew back from him, and put down the 
lantern and watched him. Thought I, it will not do to 
believe there is anything supernatural here. I can swear 
there is naught living in this ship, and am I to suppose, 
assuming she is haunted, that a ghost, which I have always 
read and heard of as an essence, has in its shadowy being 
such quality of 77iiiscle as would enable it to turn that heavy 
man over from his side on to his back ? No, no, thought 
I ; depend upon it, either he is alive and may presently 
come to himself, or else in some wonderful way the fire in 


THE FROZEN EIRATE. 


93 


thawing him has so wrought in his frozen fibres as to cause 
him to turn. 

Presently his left leg, that was slightly bent toward the 
furnace, stretched itself out to its full length, and my ear 
caught a faint sound, as of a weak and melancholy "sigh. 
Gracious Heaven, thought I, he is alive ! and with less of 
terror than of profound awe, now that I saw there was 
nothing of a ghostly or preternatural character in this busi- 
ness, I approached and bent over him. His eyes were still 
shut, and I could not hear that he breathed ; there was not 
the faintest motion of respiration in his breast nor stir in 
the hair, that was now soft, about his mouth. Yet, so far 
as the light would suffer me to judge, there was a complex- 
ion in his face such as could only come with flowing blood, 
however languid its circulation, and putting this and the 
sigh and the movement of the leg together, I felt con- 
vinced that the man was alive, and forthwith fell to work, 
very full of awe and amazement to be sure, to help nature 
that was struggling in him. 

My first step was to melt some brandy, and while this 
was doing I pulled open his coat and freed his neck, fetch- 
ing a coat from the cabin to serve as a pillow for his head. 
I next removed his boots and laid bare his feet (which 
were encased in no less than four pairs of thick woollen 
stockings, so that I thought when I came to the third pair 
I should find his legs made of stockings), and after bath- 
ing his feet in hot water, of which there was a kettleful, I 
rubbed them with hot brandy as hard as I could chafe. 
I then dealt with his hands in the like manner, having 
once been shipmate with a seaman who told me he had 
seen a sailor brought to by severe rubbing of his extremi- 
ties after he had been carried below supposed to be fro- 
zen to death, and continued this exercise till I could rub 
no longer. Next I opened his lips, and finding he wanted 
some of his front teeth, I very easily poured a dram of 
brandy into his mouth. Though I preserved my astonish- 
ment all this while, I soon discovered myself working with 
enthusiasm, with a most passionate longing, indeed, to re- 
cover the man, not only because it pleased nie to think of 
my being an instrument under God of calling a human be- 
ing, so to speak, out of his grave, but because I yearned 
for a companion, some one to address to lighten the hid- 
eous solitude of my condition and to assist me in planning 
our deliverance. 

I built up a great fire, and with much trouble, for he 


94 


THE FROZEN PIRA TE. 


was very heavy, disposed him in such a manner before it 
that the heat was reflected all over the front of him from 
his head to his feet. 1 likewise continued to chafe his ex- 
tremities, remitting this work only to rest, and finding 
that the brandy had stolen down his throat, I poured an- 
other dram in, and then another, till I think he had swal- 
lowed a pint. This w^ent on for an hour, during which 
time he never exhibited the least signs of life ; but on a 
sudden he sighed deep, a tremor ran through him, he 
sighed again, and partly raised his right hand, which fell 
to the deck with a blow ; his lips twitched, and a small 
convulsion of his face compelled the features into the 
similitude of a grin that instantly faded ; then he fetched 
a succession of sighs and opened his eyes full upon me. 

I was w'arm enough with my work, but when I observed 
him looking at me I turned of a deathlike cold, and felt 
the dew of an intolerable emotion wet in the palm of my 
hands. There was no speculation in his stare at first ; his 
eyes lay as coldly upon me as those of a fish ; but as life 
quickened in him so his understanding awoke ; he slightly 
knitted his brows, and very slowly rolled his gaze off me 
to the furnace and so over as much of the cook-room as 
was before him. He then started as if to sit up, but fell 
back with a slight groan, and looked at me again. 

“What is this?” said he in French, in a very hollow, 
feeble voice. 

I knew enough of his language to enable me to know 
he spoke in French, but that was all. I could not speak a 
syllable of that tongue. 

“You’ll be feeling better presently; you must not ex- 
pect your strength to come in a minute,” said I, taking my 
chance of his understanding me, and speaking that he 
might not think me a ghost, for I doubt not I was as white 
as one ; since, to be plain, the mere talking to a figure that 
I had got to consider as sheerly dead as any body in a 
graveyard was alarming enough, and then again there was 
the sound of my own voice, which I had not exerted in 
speech for ages, as it seemed to me. 

He faintly nodded his head, by which I perceived he 
understood me, and said very faintly in English, but with 
a true French accent, “This is a hard bed, sir.” 

“I’ll speedily mend that,” said I, and at once fetched a 
mattress from the cabin next mine. This I placed beside 
him, and dragged him on to it, he very weakly assisting. 
I then brought clothes and rugs to cover him with, and 


THE EROZEN PIRATE, 


95 


made him a high pillow, and as he lay close to the furnace 
he could not have been snugger had he had a wife to tuck 
him up in his own bed. 

1 was very much excited ; my former terrors had van- 
ished, but my awe continued great, for I felt as if I had 
wrought a miracle, and I trembled as a man would who 
surveys some prodigy of his own creation. It was yet to 
be learnt how long he had been in this condition ;'but I 
was perfectly sure he had formed one of the schooner’s 
people, and as I had guessed her to have been here for 
upward of fifty years, the notion of that man having lain 
torpid for half a century held me under a perpetual spell 
of astonishment ; but there was no more horror in me nor 
fright. He followed me about with his eyes, but did not 
offer to speak. Perhaps he could not. I put a lump of 
ice into the kettle, and when the water boiled made him a 
pint of steaming brandy punch, which I held to his lips in 
a pannikin, while I supported his back with my knees. 
He supped it slowly and painfully, but with unmistakable 
relish, and fetched a sigh of contentment as he lay back. 
But he would need something more sustaining than 
brandy and water ; and as I guessed his stomach, after 
so prodigious a fast, would be too weak to support such 
solids as beef, or pork, or bacon, I mused a little, turning 
over in my mind the contents of the larder (as I call it), 
all which time he eyed me with bewilderment growing in 
his face ; and I then thought I could not do better than 
manufacture him a broth of oatmeal, wine, bruised bis- 
cuit, and a piece of tongue, minced very small. 

This did not take me long in doing, the tongue being 
near the furnace and soft enough for the knife, and there 
was nothing to melt but the wine. When the broth was 
ready I kneeled as before and fed him. He ate greedily, 
and when the broth was gone looked as if he would have 
been glad for more. 

“ Now, sir,” says I, sleep if you can,” with which he 
turned his head and in a few minutes was sound asleep, 
breathing regularly and deeply. 


96 


THE FROZEN PJRA7E. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE pirate’s story. 

It was now time to think of myself. The watch showed 
the liour to be after six. While my supper was prepar- 
ing I went on deck to close the hatches to keep the cold 
out of the ship, and found the weather changed, the wind 
having shifted directly into the west, whence it was blow- 
ing with a good deal of violence upon the ice, ringing 
over the peaks and among the rocks with a singular clank- 
ing noise in its crying, as though it brought with it the 
echo of thousands of bells pealing in some great city be- 
hind the sea. It also swept up the gorge that went from 
our hollow to the edge of the cliff in a noisy fierce hoot- 
ing, and this blast was very freely charged with the spray 
of the breakers which boiled along the island. The sky 
was overcast with flying clouds of the true Cape Horn 
color and appearance, through which the rayless, watery, 
and wintry sun, low in the west, would dart a wet, pale, 
red ray, and these intermittent, sullen, dying flashes did 
certainly put a most stormy and menacing character into 
the evening scene. 

I closed the fore-scuttle, but on stepping aft came to the 
two bodies, the sight of which brought me to a stand. 
Since there was life in one, thought I, life may be in these, 
and I felt as if it would be murdering them to leave them 
here for the night. But, said I to myself, after all, these 
men are certainly insensible if they be not dead ; the cold 
that freezes on deck cannot be different from the cold that 
froze them below ; they’ll not be better off in the cabin 
than here. It will be all the same to them, and to-morrow 
I shall perhaps have the Frenchman’s help to carry them 
to the furnace and discover if the vital spark is still in 
them. 

To be candid, I was the more easily persuaded to leave 
them to their deck lodging by the very grim, malignant 
and savage appearance of the great figure that had leaned 
against the rail. Indeed, I did not at all like the notion 
of such company in the cabin through the long night. 
Added to this, his bulk was such that, without assistance, 
I could only have moved him as you move a cask, by roll- 
ing it, and though this might have answered to convey him 


77/A FROZEN PIRA'J'E. 


97 


to the hatch, I stood to break his arms and legs off, and 
perhaps his head, so brittle was he with frost, by letting 
his own weight trundle him down the ladder. 

So I left them to lie and came away, flinging a last look 
round, and then closing the companion door upon me. 
Tlie Frenchman, as I may call him, was sleeping very 
heavily and snoring loudly. I got my supper, and while 
1 ate surveyed the mound of clothes he made on the deck 
— a motley heap indeed, with the colors and the finery of the 
lace and buttons of the coats I had piled upon him — and 
fell into some startling considerations of him.' Was it pos- 
sible, I asked myself, that he could have lain in his frozen 
stupor for fifty years ? But why not ? for suppose he had 
been on this ice for a year only, nay, six months — an ab- 
surdity in the face of the manifest age of the ship and her 
furniture — would not six months of lifelessness followed 
by a resurrection be as marvellous as fifty years ? Had he 
the same aspect when the swoon of the ice seized him as 
he has now ? I answered yes, for the current of life having 
been frozen, his appearance could remain as it was. 

I lighted my pipe and sat smoking, thinking he would 
presently awake ; but his slumber was as deep as the still- 
ness I had thawed him out of had been, and he lay so 
motionless that, but for his snoring and harsh breathing, I 
should have believed him lapsed into his former lifeless- 
ness. 

At 8 o'clock tlie fire was very low. Nature was work- 
ing out her own way with this Frenchman and I determined 
to let him sleep where he was and take my chance of the 
night. At all events he could not alarm me by stirring, 
for if I heard a movement I should know what it was. So, 
loitering to see the last gleam of fire extinguished, I took 
my lantern and went to bed, but not to sleep. The full 
meaning of the man awakening into life out of a condition 
into which he had been plunged, for all I knew, before I 
was born, came upon me very violently in the darkness. 
There being nothing to divert my thoughts, I gave my 
mind wholly to it, and I tell you I found it an amazing, 
terrifying thing to happen. Indeed, I do not know that 
the like of such an adventure was ever before heard of, 
and I well recollect thinking to myself, “I would give my 
left hand to know of other cases of the kind — to be as- 
sured that this recovery was strictly within the bounds of 
nature,” that I might feel I was not alone, so strongly did 
the thoughts of a satanic influence operating in this busi- 

7 


98 


THE FROZEH PI RA'JE. 


ness crowd upon me — that is to say, as if I was involun- 
tarily working out some plan of the devil. 

The gale made a great roaring. The ship’s stern lay 
open to the gorge, and but for her steadiness I might have 
supposed myself at sea. There was indeed an incessant 
thunder about my ears, often accompanied by the shock 
of a mass of spray flung thirty feet high, and falling like 
sacks of stones upon the deck. Once I felt the vessel 
rock ; I cannot tell the hour, but it was long past^iidnight, 
and by the noise of the wind I guessed it was blowing a 
whole gale. The movement was extraordinary — whether 
sideways or downwards I could not distinguish ; but sea- 
soned as my stomach' was to the motion of ships, this 
movement set up a nausea that lasted some while, acting 
upon me as I have since learned the convulsion of an 
earthquake does upon people. It took off my mind from 
the Frenchman, and filled me with a different sort of alarm 
altogether, for it was very evident the gale was making the 
ice break ; and thought I to myself, “ If we do not mind 
our eye we shall be crushed and buried.” But what was 
to be done ? To quit the ship for that piercing flying gale, 
charged with sleet and hail and foam, was merely to lan- 
guish for a little while and then miserably expire of frost. 
No, thought I, if the end is to come let it find me here ; 
and with that I snugged me down amid the coats and 
cloaks in my cot, and, obstinately holding my eyes closed, 
ultimately fell asleep. 

It was a little after seven when I awoke. I lighted the 
lantern, but upon entering the passage that led to the 
cabin I observed by my own posture that the schooner 
had not only heeled more to larboard, but was further 
“down by the stern” to the extent of several feet. In- 
deed, the angle of inclination was now considerable 
enough to bring my shoulder (in the passage) close 
against the starboard side when I stood erect. The noise 
of the gale was still in the air, and the booming and boiling 
of the sea was uncommonly loud. I walked straight to the 
cook-room and, putting the lantern to the Frenchman, 
perceived that he was still in a heavy sleep, and that he 
had lain through the night in precisely the attitude in 
which I had left him. His face was so muffled that little 
more than his long hawk’s bill nose was discernible. It 
was freezingly cold, and I made haste to light the fire. 
There was still coal enough in the corner to last for the 
day, and before long the furnace was blazing cheerfully. 


THE EROZKX P/EA'l'E. 


99 


I went to work to make some broth and fry some ham, 
and melt a little block of the ruby-colored wine ; and 
while thus occupied, turning my head a moment to look 
at the Frenchman, I found him half started up, staring in- 
tently, at me. 

This sudden confrontment threw me into such confu- 
sion that I could not speak. He moved his head from side 
to side, taking a view of tlie scene, with an expression of 
the most inimitable astonishment painted upon his coun- 
tenance. He then brought the flat of his hand with a 
dramatic blow to his forehead, the scar on which showed 
black as ink to the fire-glow, and sat erect. 

“ Where have I been ? ” he exclaimed in French. 

“ Sir,” said I, speaking with the utmost difficulty, “I do 
not understand your language. I am English. You speak 
my tongue. Will you address me in it ?” 

“ English ! ” he exclaimed in English, dropping his head 
on one side, and peering at me with an incredible air of 
amazement. “ How came you here ? You are not of our 

company ? Let me see ” Here he struggled wdth 

recollection, continuing to stare at me from under his 
shaggy eyebrows as if I tvas some frightful vision. 

“ I am a shipwrecked British mariner,” said I, “ and 
have been cast away upon this ice, where I found your 
schooner.” 

“ Ha ! ” he interrupted with prodigious vehemence, 
“certainly, we are frozen up — I remember. That sleep 
should serve my memory so ! ” He made as if to rise, but 
sat again. “ The cold is numbing ; it would weaken a 
lion. Give me a hot drink, sir.” 

I filled a pannikin wdth the melted wine, which he swal- 
lowed thirstily. 

“More !” cried he. “ I seem to want life.” 

Again I filled the pannikin. 

“Good !” said he, fetching a sigh as he returned to the 
vessel; “you are very obliging, sir. If you have food 
there w^e will eat together.” 

I give the substance of his speech but not his delivery of 
it, nor is it necessary that I should interpolate my render- 
ing with the French words he used. 

The broth being boiled, I gave him a good bowl of it 
along with a plate of bacon and tongue, some biscuit and 
a pannikin of hot brandy and water, all of which things I 
put upon his knees as he sat up on the mattress, and to 
it he fell, making a rare meal. Yet all the while he ate 


lOO 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


he acted like a man bewitched, as well he might, staring 
at me and looking round and round him, and then drop- 
ping his knife to strike his brow, as if by that kind of 
blow he would quicken the activity of memory there. 

There is something wrong,” said he, presently. “ What 
is it, sir ? This is the cook-room. How does it happen 
that I am lying here ? ” 

I told him exactly how it was, adding that if it had not 
been for his posture, which obliged me to thaw in order 
to carry him, he would now be on deck with the others, 
awaiting the best funeral I could give him. 

“ Who are the others ? ” asked he. 

“I know not,” said I. “There were four in all, count- 
ing yourself ; one sits frozen to death on the rocks. I 
met him first, and took his watch from his pocket that I 
might tell the time.” 

He took the watch in his hands and asked me to bring 
the lantern close. 

“Ha!” cried he, “this was Mendoza’s — the captain’s. 

I remember ; he took it for the sake of this letter upon it. 
He lies dead on the rocks ? We missed him, but did not 
know where he had gone.” 

Then, raising his hand and impulsively starting up on 
the mattress, he cried, while he tapped his forehead : “ It 
has come back ! I have it ! Guiseppe Trentanove and I 
were in the cabin ; he had fallen blind with the glare of 
the ice — if that was it. We confronted each othet. On a 
sudden he screamed out. I had put my face in my arms 
and felt myself dying. His cry aroused me. I looked up 
and saw him leaning back from the table with his eyes 
fixed and horror in his countenance. I was too feeble to 
speak — too languid to rise. I watched him awhile, and 
then the drowsiness stole over me again, and my head 
sank, and I remember no more.” 

He shuddered and extended the pannikin for more liquor. 
I filled it with two-thirds of brandy and the rest water, and 
he supped it down as if it had been a thimbleful of wine. 

“ By the holy cross,” cried he, “ but this is very won- 
derful, though. How long have you been here, sir ? ” 

“ Three days.” 

“Three days ! and I have been in a stupor all that time 
— never moving, never breathing ? ” 

“ You will have been in a stupor longer than that, I ex- 
pect,” said I. 

“ What is this month ?” he cried. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


loi 


“ July,” I replied. 

“July — July!” he muttered, “Impossible! Let me 
see” — he began to count on his fingers — “ we fell in with 
the ice and got locked in November ; we had six months 
of it ; I recollect no more. Six months of it, sir; and sup- 
pose the stupor came upon me then, the month at which 
my memory stops would be April. Yetyou call this July ; 
that is to siiy, four months of oblivion ! Impossible ! ” 

“ What was the year in which you fell in with the ice ?” 
said I. 

“ The 3’'ear ?” he exclaimed in a voice deep with the won- 
der this question raised in him ; “ The year? Why, man, 
what year but seventeen hundred and fifty-three ? ” 

“Good God ! ” cried I, jumping to my feet with terror 
at a statement I had anticipated, though it shocked me as 
a new and frightful revelation. “ Do 3'ou know what 3^ear 
this is ? ” 

He looked at me without answering. 

“ It is eighteen hundred and one,” I cried, and as I said 
this I recoiled a step, fully expecting him to leap up 
and exhibit a hundred demonstrations of horror and con- 
sternation ; for this I am persuaded would have been my 
posture had an3" man roused me from a slumber and told 
me I had been in that condition for eight and forty 3'ears. 

He continued to view me with a strange and cunning 
expression in his eyes, the coolness of which was inex- 
pressibly surprising and bewildering, and even mortifying ; 
then presentl3" grasping his beard, looked at it ; then put 
his hands to his face and looked at them, then pulled out 
his feet and looked ci\.ihe?n; then very slowly, but without 
visible effort, stood up, swaying a little with an air of weak- 
ness, and proceeded to feel and strike himself all over, 
swinging his arms and using his legs ; after which he sat 
down and pulled the clothes over his naked feet, and, fix- 
ing his e3'es on me afresh said ; “ What do 3'ou say this 
vcar is, sir ? ” 

“ Eighteen hundred and one,” I replied. 

“ Bah ! ” said he, and shook his head very knowingh'. 
“ No matter ; you liave been shipwrecked too. Sir, ship- 
wreck shuffles dates as a player does cards, and the best of 
us will go wrong in famine, loneliness, cold, and peril. Be 
of good cheer, m3' friend ; all will return to 3'ou. Sir, sir, 
that I may hear your adventures, and I will relate mine.” 

I saw how it was — he supposed me deranged, a mortify- 
ing construction to place upon the language of a man who 


102 


7' HE FROZEN PIRAYE. 


liad restored him to life ; yet a few moments’ reflection 
taught me to see the reasonableness of it, for unless he 
tiioiight me crazy he must conclude I spoke the truth, and 
it was inconceivable he should believe that he had lain in 
a fiozen condition for eight and forty years. 

I stirred the fire to make more light and sat down near 
the furnace. His appearance was very striking. The scar 
upon his forehead gave a very dark, sullen look to his 
brows ; his eyes were small and were half lost in the 
dusky hollows in which they were set, and 1 observed an 
indescribably leering, cunning expression in them, some- 
thing of which I attributed to the large quantity of liquor 
he had swallowed. This contrasted oddly with the re- 
spectable aspect he took from his baldness — that is, from 
the nakedness of his poll, for, as I have before said, his 
hair fell long and plentifully in a ring a little above the 
ears, so that you would suppose at some late period of his 
life he had been scalped. 

I know not how it was, but I felt no joy in this man’s 
company. For some companion, for someone to speak 
with, I had yearned again and again with heart-breaking 
passion ; and now a living man sat before me, yet I was 
sensible of no gladness. In truth, I was overawed by 
him ; he frightened me as one risen from the dead. Here 
was a creature that had entered, as it seemed to me, those 
black portals from which no man ever returns, and had 
come back, through my instrumentality, after hard upon 
fifty years of the grave. Reason as I might that it was all 
perfectly in nature, that there was nothing necromantic or 
diabolic in it, that it could not have happened had it not 
been natural, my spirits were as much oppressed and con- 
founded by his sitting there alive, talking and watching 
nie, as if, being truly dead, life had entered him on a sud- 
den and he had risen and walked. 

I have no doubt the disorder my mind was in helped to 
persuade him that I had not the full possession of my 
senses. He ran his eye over my figure, and then round 
the cook-room, and said : 1 am impatient to learn your 

story, sir.” 

“ Why, sir,” said I, “ my story is summed up in what I 
have already told you.” But that he might not be at a 
loss — for, to be sure, he had only very newly collected his 
intellects — I related my adventures at large. He drew 
nearer to the furnace while I talked, bringing his covering 
of clothes along with him. and held out his great hands to 


THE FROZEN PJRATE. 


103 


toast at the fire, all the time observing me with scarce a 
wink of the eye. Arrived at the end of my tale, I told 
him how only' last night I had dragged his companion on 
deck, and how he was to have followed but for his pos- 
ture. 

“ Ha!” cried he, “you might have caused my flesh to 
mortify by laying me close to the fire. It would have been 
better to rub me with snow.” 

He poked up one foot up after the other to count his 
toes, fearing some had come away with his stockings, and 
then said : “Well, and how long should I have slept had 
you not come ? Another week ! By Saint Paul, I might 
have died. Have you my stockings, sir ? ” 

I gave them to him, and he pulled them over his legs, 
and then drew on his boots and stood up, the coats and 
wraps tumbling off him as he rose. 

“ I can stand,” says he. “ That is good.” 

But in attempting to take a step, he reeled, and would 
have fallen had I not grasped his arm. 

“ Patience, my friend, patience !” he muttered, as if to 
himself. “I must lie a little longer,” and with that he 
kneeled, and then lay along the mattress. He breathed 
heavily, and pointed to the pannikin. I asked him whether 
lie would have wine or brandy ; he answered : “ Brandy,” 
so I melted a draught, which dose, I thought, on top of 
what he had already taken, would send him to sleep ; but, 
instead, it quickened his spirits, and, with no lack of life 
in his voice, he said : “What is the condition of the ves- 
sel ? ” 

I told him that she was still high and dry, adding that 
during the night some sort of change had happened, which 
I should presently go on deck to remark. 

“ Think you,” says he, “ that there is any chance of her 
ever being liberated ? ” 

I answered: “Yes, but not yet — that is, if the ice in 
breaking doesn’t destroy her. The summer season has yet 
to come, and we are progressing north ; but now that you 
are with me, it will be a question for us to settle, whether 
we are to wait for the ice to release the schooner, or en- 
deavor to effect our escape by other means.” 

A curious gleam of cunning satisfaction shone in his 
eyes as he looked at me ; he then kept silence for some 
moments, lost in thought. 

“Pray,” said I, breaking in upon him, “what ship is 
this ?” 


104 


THE FROZEN PIRA TE. 


He Started, deliberated an instant, and answered : “ The 
Boca del Dragon.”* 

“ A Spaniard ? ” 

He nodded. 

“ She was a pirate ? ” said I. 

“ How do you know that?” he cried with sudden fierce- 
ness. 

“ Sir,” said I, “ I am a British sailor who has used the 
sea for some years and know the difference between a 
handspike and a poop-lantern. But what matters. She 
is a pirate no longer.” 

He let his eyes fall from my face and gazed around him 
with the air of one who cannot yet persuade his under- 
standing of the realities of the scene he moves in. 

“Tut!” cried he presently, addressing himself, “ what 
matters the truth, as you say? Yes,” said he, “the Boca 
del Dragon is a pirate. You have, of course, rummaged 
her, and guessed her character by what you found.” 

“I met with enough to excite my suspicion,” said I. 
“ The ship’s company of a craft of this kind do not usually 
go clothed in lace and rich cloaks, and carry watches of 
this kind,” tapping my breast, “ in their fobs and handfuls 
of gold in their pockets.” 

“ Unless ” said he. 

“Unless,” I answered, “their flag is as black as our 
prospects.” 

“You think them black ?” he cried, the look of resent- 
ment that was darkening his face dying out. “ The vessel 
is sound, is she not?” 

I replied that she appeared so, but it would be impos- 
sible to be sure until she floated. 

“ The stores ? ” 

They are plentiful.” 

“ They should be ! ” he cried ; “we have the liquor and 
stores of a galleon and two carracks in our hold, apart 
from what we originally laid in for the cruise. Every- 
thing will have been kept sweet by the cold.” 

“All the stores seem sound,” said I; “we shall not 
starve — no, not if we were to be imprisoned here for three 
years. But, all the same, our prospects are black, for here 
is the ship high and fixed ; the ice in parting may crush 
her, and we have no boat.” 

“ May, may!” he cried with a Frenchman’s vehemence. 
“ You have may and you also have may not in your language, 
* So in Mr. Rodney’s MS. 


THE EROZEX PIRATE. 


los 

Let me feel my strength improving ; we shall then find 
means of throwing a light upon these black prospects of 
yours.” 

He smiled, or rather grinned, his fangs making the latter 
term fitter for the mirthless grimace he made. 

“ May I ask your name ?” said I. 

“ Jules Tassard at your service,” said he, “ third in com- 
mand of the Boca del Dragon, but good as Mate Tren- 
tanove, and good as Captain Mendoza, and good as the 
cabin boy, Fernando Prado ; for we pirates are republi- 
cans, sir, we know no social distinctions save those we 
order for the convenience of working ship. Now let me 
tell you the story of our disaster. We had come out of 
the Spanish Main into the South Seas, partly to escape 
some British and French cruisers which were after us and 
others of our kind, and partly because ill-luck was against 
us, and we could not find our account in those waters. 
We sailed in December two years ago ” 

“ Making the year ? ” 1 interrupted. 

Fie started, and then grinned again. 

“ Ah, to be sure ! ” cried he, “ this is eighteen hundred 
and one ; but to keep my tale in countenance,” he went 
on, in a satirical, apologetic way, “ let me call the year in 
which we sailed for the South Sea seventeen hundred and 
fifty-one. What matters forty or fifty years to the ship- 
wrecked ? Is not one day of an open boat, with no so- 
ciety but the devils of memory, and no hope but the si- 
lence at the bottom of the sea, an eternity ? Fill me that 
pannikin, my friend. I thank you. To proceed : We 
cruised some months in the South Sea and took a number 
of ships. One was a privateer that had plundered a Brit- 
ish Indiaman in the Southern Ocean, and had entered the 
South Sea by New Holland. This fellow was full of fine 
clothes and had some silver in her. We took what we 
wanted, and let her go with her people under hatches, her 
yards square, her helm amidships, and her cabin on fire. 
Our maxim is : ‘ No. witnesses ! ’ That is the pirate’s phil- 
osophy. Who gives us quarter unless it be to hang us ? 
But to continue : We did handsomely, but were a long 
time about it, and after careening and filling up with 
w’ater ’twixt San Carlos and Chiloe, we set sail for the 
Antilles. Like your brig, we were blown south. The 
weather was ferocious. Gale after gale thundered down 
upon us, forcing us to fly before it. We lost all reckon- 
ing of our position ; for days, for weeks, sea and sky were 


io6 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


enveloped in clouds of snow, in the heart of which drove 
our frozen schooner. We were none of us of a national- 
ity fit to encounter these regions ; we carried most of us 
the curly hair of the sun, the chocolate cheek of the burn- 
ing zone, and the ice chained the crew, crouching like 
Lascars, below. We swept past many vast icebergs, which 
would leap on a sudden out of the white whirl of thick- 
ness, often so close aboard that the recoil of the surge 
striking against the mass would flood our decks. At all 
moments of the day and night we were prepared to feel 
the shock of the vessel crushing her bows against one of 
these stupendous hills. The cabin resounded with salves 
and aves, with invocations to the saints, promises, curses, 
and litanies. The cold does not make men of the Span- 
iards, who are but indifferent seamen in temperate climes, 
and we were chiefly Spanish with consciences as red as 
your English flag.” 

He grinned, emptied the pannikin, and stretched his 
hands to the fire to warm them. 

“ One morning, the weather having cleared somewhat, 
we found ourselves surrounded by ice. A great chain 
floated ahead of us, extending far into the south. The 
gale blew dead on to this coast ; we durst not haul the 
schooner to the wind, and our only chance lay in discov- 
ering some bay where we might find shelter. Such a bay 
it was my good luck to spy, lying directly in a line with 
the ship’s head. It was formed of a great steep of ice jut- 
ting a long way slantingly into the sea, the width be- 
tween the point and the main being about a third of a 
mile. I seized the helm, and shouted to the men to hoist 
the head of the mainsail that she might round to when I 
put the helm down. But the fellows were in a panic 
terror and stood gaping at what they regarded as their 
doom, calling upon the Virgin and all the saints for lielp 
and mercy. Into this bay did we rush on top of a huge 
sea, Trentanove and the captain and I swinging with set 
teeth at the tiller, that was hard a-lee ; she came round, 
but with such way upon her that she took a long shelving 
beach of ice and ran up it to the distance of half her own 
length, and there she lay, with her rudder within touch of 
the wash of the water. The men, regarding the schooner 
as lost, and concluding that if she went to pieces her boats 
would be destroyed, and with them their only chance to 
escape from the ice, fell frantic and lost their wits alto- 
gether. They roared: ‘To the boats! to the boats!’ 


THE FROZEN PIRA TE. 


107 


The captain endeavored to bring them to their senses ; he 
and I and the mate, and Joam Barros, the boatswain — a 
Portuguese — went among them pistols in hand, entreat- 
ing, cursing, threatening. ‘Think of the plunder in this 
hold ! Will you abandon it without an effort to save it ? 
What, think you, are your chances for life in open boats in 
this sea? The schooner lies protected here ; the weather 
will moderate presently, and we may then be able to slide 
her off.’ But reason as Ave would, the cowardly dogs re- 
fused to listen. They had broached a spirit cask aft, and 
passed the liquor along the decks while they hoisted the 
pinnace out of the hold and got the other boats over. The 
drink maddened, yet left them wild with fear, too. They 
would not wait to come at the treasure in the run — the 
fools believed the ship would tumble to pieces as she 
stood — but entered the forecastle and the officers’ cabins, 
and routed about for whatever money and trinkets they 
might stuff into their pockets ivithout loss of time ; and 
then, provisioning the boats, they called us to join them, 
but we said no, on which they ran the boats down to the 
water, tumbled into them and pulled away round the point 
of ice. We lost sight of them, and I have little doubt that 
they all perished shortly afterward.” 

He ceased. I was anxious to hear more. 

“ You had been six months on the ice when the stupor 
fell upcm you ?” 

“Ay, about six months. The ice gathered about us and 
built us in. I recollect it was three days after we stranded 
that, going on deck, I saw the bay (as I term it) filled with 
ice. We drew up several plans to escape, but none 
satisfied us. Besides, sir, we had a treasure on board 
which we had risked our necks to get, and we were pre- 
pared to go on imperiling our lives to save it. ’Twas nat- 
ural. We had a great store of coal forward and amid- 
ships, for we had faced the Horn in coming and knew 
what we had to expect in returning. We were also richly 
stocked with provisions and drink of all sorts. There were 
but four of us, and we dealt with what we had as if we de- 
signed it should last us fifty years. But the cold was 
frightful ; it was not in flesh and blood to stand it. One 
day — we had been locked up about five months — Mendoza 
said he would get upon the rocks and take a view of 
the sea. He did not return. The others were too weak 
to seek him, and they were half blind besides ; I went, but 
the ice was full of caves and hollows, and the like, and I 


io8 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 

could not find him, nor could I look for him long, the cold 
being the hand of death itself up there. The time went 
by ; Trentanove went stone blind, and I had to put food 
and drink into his hands that he might live. A week 
before the stupor came upon me I went on deck and 
saw Joam Barros leaning at the rail. I called to him, 
but he made no reply. I approached and looked at 
him, and found him frozen. Then happened what I 
have told you. We were in the cabin, the mate seated at 
the table, waiting for me to lead and support him to the 
cook-room, for he was so weak he could scarce carry his 
weight. A sudden faintness seized me, and I sank down 
upon the bench opposite him, letting my head fall upon 
my arms. His cry startled me — I looked up— saw him as 
I have said ; but the cabin turned black, my head sank 
again, and I remember no more.” 

He paused and then cried in French : “ That is all ! 
They are dead — Jules Tassard lives! The devil is loyal 
to his own I ” and with that he lay back and burst into 
laughter. 

“And this,”’ said I, “was in seventeen hundred and 
fifty-three ? ” 

“Yes,” he answered, “and this eighteen hundred and 
one — eight and forty years afterward, hey ? " and he 
laughed out again. “ I’ve talked so much,” said he, “that 
d’ye know, I think another nap will do me good. What 
coals have you found in the ship ? ” 

I told him. 

“Good,” he cried; “we can keep ourselves warm for 
some time to come, anyhow.” 

And so saying he pulled a rug up to his nose and shut 
his eyes. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

I HEAR OF A GREAT TREASURE. 

I lighted a pipe and sat pondering his story a little 
while. There was no doubt he had given me the exact 
truth so far as his relation of it went. As it was certain, 
then, that the Boca del Dragon (as she was called) had 
been fixed in the ice for hard upon fifty years, the con- 
clusion I formed was that she had been blown by some 
hundreds of leagues further soutli than the point to which 


THE FROZEN PIRA'TE. 


109 


the Laughing Mary had been driven ; that this ice in 
which she was entangled was not then drifting northward, 
but was in the grasp of some polar current that trended 
it southeasterly ; that in due course it was carried to the 
Antarctic main of ice, where it lay compacted ; after 
which, through stress of weather or by the agency of a 
particular temperature, a great mass of it broke away and 
started on that northward course which bergs of all mag- 
nitude take when they are ruptured from the frozen con- 
tinent. 

This theory may be disputed, but it matters not. My 
business is to relate what befell me ; if I do my share hon- 
estly, the candid reader will not, I believe, quarrel with 
me for not being able to explain everything as I go along. 

The Frenchman snored, and I sat considering him. 
The impression he had made upon me was not agreeable. 
To be sure he had suffered heavily, and there was some- 
thing not displeasing in the spirit he discovered in telling 
the story — a spirit I am unable to communicate, as it owed 
everything to French vivacity, largely spiced with devil- 
ment, and to sudden turns and ejaculations beyond the 
capacity of my pen to imitate. But a professional fierce- 
ness ran through it, too ; it was as if he had licked his 
chops when he talked of dismissing the captured ship with 
her people confined below and her cabin on fire. He had 
been as good as dead for nearly fifty years, yet he brought 
with him into life exactly the same qualities he had car- 
ried with him in his exit. Hence, I never now hear that 
expression taken from the Latin, “ Of the dead speak 
nothing unless good,” without despising it as an unworthy 
concession to sentiment ; for I have not the least doubt in 
my own mind that, spite of deathbed repentances and all 
the horrors which crowd upon the imagination of a bad 
man in his last moments — I say I have not the least doubt 
that, of every hundred persons who die, ninety-nine of 
them, could they be raised from the dead, no matter how 
man)^ years or even centuries they might have lain in their 
graves, would exhibit their original natures, and pursue 
exactly the same courses which made them loved or 
scorned or feared or neglected before, which brought 
them to the gallows or which qualified them to die in 
peace, with faces brightening to the opening heavens. If 
Nero did not again fire Home, he would be equal to 
crimes as great, and desire nothing better than the oppor- 
tunity for them. Caesar would again be the tyrant, and 


no 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


the sword of Brutus would once more fulfil its mission. 
Richard III. would emerge in his winding-sheet with the 
same humpbacked character in which he had expired, the 
Queen of Scots return warm to her gallantries, and the 
Stuarts repeat those blunders and crimes which terminated 
in the headsman or in banishment. 

But these are my thoughts of to-day ; I was of another 
temper while I sat smoking and listening to the--snoring 
of Monsieur Jules Tassard. Now that I had a companion, 
should I be able to escape from this horrid situation ? He 
had spoken of chests of silver — where was the treasure, 
in the run ? There might be booty enough in the hold to 
make a great man, a fine gentleman of me ashore. It 
would be a noble ending to an amazing adventure to come 
off with as much money as would render me independent 
for life, and enable me to turn my back forever upon the 
hardest calling to which the destiny of man can wed him. 

Of such were the fancies which hurried through my 
mind, coupled with visitations of awe and wonder when I 
cast my eyes upon the sleeping Frenchman. After all it 
was ridiculous that I should feel mortified because he sup- 
posed me crazy in the matter of dates. How was it con- 
ceivable he should believe he had lain lifeless for eight 
and forty years ? I knew a man who, after a terrible 
adventure, had slept three days and nights without stir- 
ring ; the assurances of the people about him had failed 
to persuade him that he had slumbered so long, and it was 
not until he walked abroad and met a hundred evidences 
as to the passage o”f the time during which he had slept 
that he allowed himself to become convinced. 

I wished to see how the schooner lay and what change 
had befallen the ice in the night, and went on deck. It 
was blowing a whole gale Of wind from the northwest. 
Inside the ship, with the hatches on, and protected more- 
over by the sides of the hollow in which she lay, it would 
have been impossible to guess at the weight of the gale, 
though all along I had supposed it to be storming pretty 
fiercely by the thundering, humming noise which re- 
sounded in the cabin. But I had no notion that so great 
a wind raged till I gained the deck and heard the pro- 
digious bellowing of it above the rocks. The sky was one 
great cloud of slate, and there was no flying darkness or 
yellow scud to give the least movement of life in it. The 
sea was swelling very furiously, and I could divine its tem- 
pestuous character by clouds of spray which sped like 


TIIK FROZKX PIRATE. 


volumes of steam under the sullen, dusky heavens, 
over tlie mast-head. The schooner lay with a list of about 
fifteen degrees and her bows high cocked. I looked over 
the stern and saw that the ice had sunk there, and that 
there were twenty great rents or yawning seams where I 
had before noticed but one. A vast block of ice had 
fallen on the starboard side and lay so close on the quar- 
ter that I could have sprung on to it. No other marked 
changes were observable, but there were a hundred sounds 
to assure me that neither the sea nor the gale was wliolly 
wasting its strength upon this crystal territory, and that 
if I thought proper to climb the slope and expose myself 
to the gale, I should behold a face of ice somewhat differ- 
ent from what I had before gazed upon. 

But the bitter cold held me in dread, and there was no 
need besides for me to take a survey. All that concerned 
me lay in the hollow in which the schooner was frozen ; 
but so far as the slopes were concerned, I could see noth- 
ing to render me uneasy. The declivities were gradual, 
and there was little fear of even a violent convulsion throw- 
ing the ice upon us. The danger lay below, under the keel ; 
if the ice split, then down would drop the ship and stave 
herself, or if she escaped tliat peril she must be so wedged as 
to render the least further pressure of the ice against her 
sides destructive. 

I was about to go below again, when my eye was taken 
by the two figures lying upon the deck. No dead bodies 
ever looked more dead, but after the wondrous restoration 
of the Frenchman I could not view their forms without 
fancying that they were but as he had been, and that if 
tliey were carried to the furnace and treated with brandy 
and rubbing and the like, they might be brought to. Full 
of thoughts concerning them I stepped into the cabin, and, 
going to the cook-room, found Tassard still heavily sleep- 
ing. The coal in the corner was low, and as it wanted an 
hour of dinner time, I took the lantern and a bucket and 
went into the forepeak, and after several journeys stocked 
up a good provision of coal in the corner. I made noise 
enough, but Tassard slept on. When this was ended I 
boiled some water to cleanse myself, and then set about 
getting the dinner ready. 

The going into the forepeak had put my mind upon the 
treasure, which, as I had gathered from the Frenchman’s nar- 
rative, was somewhere hidden in the schooner — in the run, 
as I doubted not; I mean in the hold, under the lazarette, for 


THE FROZEN PIRAl'E. 


^ will recollect that, being weary and half-perished with 
the cold, I had turned my back on that dark part after 
having looked into the powder-room. All the time I was 
fetching the coal and dressing the dinner, my imagina- 
tion was on fire with fancies of the treasure in this ship. 
The Frenchman had told me that they had been well enough 
pleased with their hauls in the South Sea to resolve them 
upon heading round the Horn for their haunt, wherever it 
might be, in the Spanish Main ; and I had too good an 
understanding of the character of pirates to believe that 
they would have quitted a good hunting field before they 
had richly lined their pockets. What then was the treas- 
ure in the run, if indeed it were there ? I recalled a dozen 
stories of the doings of the buccaneers, not to speak of the 
famous Acapulco ship taken by Anson, in or about the 
year in which the Boca del Dragon was fishing in those 
waters ; and I feasted my fancy with all sorts of sparkling 
dreams of gold and silver and precious stones, of the costly 
ecclesiastical furniture of New Spain, of which methought 
I found a hint in that silver crucifix in the cabin, of rings, 
sw^ord hilts, watches, buckles, snuffboxes, and the like. 
Lord ! thought I, that this island were of good honest mother 
earth instead of ice, that we might bury the pirate’s booty 
if we could not save the ship, and make a princely mine of 
its grave, ready for the mattock should we survive to fetch 
it ! 

I was mechanically stirring the saucepan full of broth I 
had prepared, lost in these golden thoughts, when the 
Frenchman suddenly sat up on his mattress. 

“ Ha ! ” cried he, snuffing vigorously, “ I smell some- 
thing good — something I am ready for. There is no physic 
like sleep,” and with that he stretched out his arms with a 
great yawn, then rose very agilely, kicking the clothes and 
mattress on one side and bringing a bench close to the 
furnace. “ What time is it, sir ? ” ' 

“ Something after twelve by the captain’s watch,” said 
I, pulling it out and looking at it. “ But 'tis guesswork 
time.” 

“ The captain's watch ? ” cried he, with a short loud laugh. 
“You are modest, Mr. ” 

“ Paul Rodney,” said I, seeing he stopped for my name. 

“Yes, modest, Paul Rodney. That watch is yours, sir; 
and you mean it shall be yours.” 

“ Well, Mr. Tassard,” said I, coloring in spite of myself, 
though he could not witness the change in such a light as 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


113 


that, “ I felt this, that if I left the watch in the captain’s 
pocket it was bound to go to the bottom ultimately, 
and ” 

“ Bah ! ” he interrupted, with a violent flourish of the 
hand. “ Let us save the schooner, if possible ; there will 
be more than one watch for your pocket, more than one 
doubloon for your purse. Meanwhile, to dinner ! My 
stupor has converted me into an empty hogshead, and it 
will take me a fortnight of hard eating to feel that I have 
broken my fast.” 

With a blow of the chopper he struck off a lump of the 
frozen wine, and then fell to, eating perhaps as a man 
might be expected to eat who had not had a meal for eight 
and forty years. 

There are two of your companions on deck,” said I. 

He started. 

“ I mean frozen,” I continued ; they’ll be the bodies of 
Trentanove and Joam Barros.” 

He nodded. 

"‘There is no reason why they should be deader than 
you were. It is true that Barros has been on deck while 
you have been below, but after you pass a certain degree 
of cold fiercer rigors cannot signify.” 

“ What do you propose ? ” said he, looking at me oddly. 

“Why, that we should carry them to the fire and rub 
them, and bring them to if we can.” 

“ Why ? ” 

I was staggered by his indifference, for I had believed 
he would have shown himself very eager to restore his 
old companions and shipmates to life. I was searching 
for an answer to his strange inquiry, “Why?” when he 
proceeded : 

“ First of all, my friend Trentanove was stone-blind, 
and Barros nearly blind. Unless you could return them 
their sight with their life they would curse you for dis- 
turbing them. Better the blackness of death than the 
blackness of life.” 

“ There is tiie body of the captain,” said I. 

He grinned. 

“ Let them sleep,” said he. “ Do you know that they 
are cutthroats, who would reward your kindness with the 
poniard that you might not tell tales against them, or 
claim a share of the treasure in this vessel ? Of all des- 
perate villains I never met the like of Barros. He loved 
blood even better than money. He’d quench his thirst 
8 


THE FROZEN IN RATE. 


114 

before an engagement with gunpowder mixed in brandy. 
I once saw him choke a man — tut ! he is very well — leave 
l)im to his repose.” 

In the glow of the fire he looked uncommonly sardonic 
and wild, with his long beard, bald head, flowing hair, 
shaggy brows, and little cunning eyes, which seemed in 
their smallness to share in his grin, and yet did not ; and 
though, to be sure, he was someone to talk to and to make 
plans with for our escape, yet I felt that if he were to fall 
into a stupor again it would not be my hands that should 
chafe him into being. 

“You knew those men in life,” said I. “ If the others 
are of the same pattern as the Portuguese, by all means 
let them lie frozen.” 

“ But, my friend,” said he, calling me mon ami^ which I 
translate, “ that’s not it, either. Do you know the value 
of the booty in this schooner ? ” 

I answered, no ; how was I to know it ? I had met with 
nothing but wearing apparel, and some pieces of money, 
and a few watches in the forecastle. He knit his brows 
with a fierce suspicious gleam in his eyes. 

“ But you have searched the vessel ?” he cried. 

“ I have searched, as you call it — that is, I have crawled 
through the hold as far as the powder-room.” 

“ And further aft ? ” 

“ No, not further aft.” 

His countenance cleared. 

“ You scared me ! ” said he, fetching up a deep breath. 
“ I was afraid that someone had been beforehand with us. 
But it is not conceivable. No ! we shall look for it pres- 
ently, and we shall find it.” 

“ Find what, Mr. Tassard ? ” said 1. 

He held up the fingers of the right hand : “One, two, 
three, four, five — five chests of plate and money ; one, 
two, three— three cases of virgin silver in ingots ; one chest 
of gold ingots ; one case of jewelry. In all — ” he paused 
to enter into a calculation, moving his lips briskly as he 
whispered to himself — “between ninety and one hundred 
thousand pounds of your English money.” 

I stifled the amazement his words excited, and said, 
coldly, “You must have met with some rich ships.” 

“ We did well,” he answered. “ My memory is good” 
— he counted afresh on his fingers — “ten cases in all. 
Fortune is a strange wench, Mr. Rodney. Who would 
think of finding her lodged on an iceberg! Now bring 


THE FROZEN P/RATE, 


“5 


those others up there to life, and you make us five. What 
would follow, think you — what but this ?” 

He raised his beard and stroked his throat with the 
sharp of his hand. Then, swallowing a great draught of 
brandy, he rose and stopped to listen. 

“ It is blowing hard,” said he ; “ the harder the better. 
I want to see this island knocked into bergs. Every sea 
is as good as a pickaxe. Hark ! there are those crackling 
noises I used to hear before I fell into a stupor. Where 
do you sleep ? ” 

I told him. 

“ My berth is the third,” said he. ‘‘ I wish to smoke, 
and will fetch my pipe.” 

He took the lantern and went aft, acting as if he had left 
that berth an hour ago, and I understood, in the face of 
this ready recurrence of his memory, how impossible it 
would be ever to make him believe he had been practically 
lifeless since the y^ar 1753. When he returned he had on 
a hairy cap, with large covers for the ears, and a big flap 
behind that fell to below his collar, and was almost as long 
as his hair. He wanted but a couple of muskets and an 
umbrella to closely resemble Robinson Crusoe, as he is 
made to figure in most of the cuts I have seen. He pro- 
duced a pipe of the Dutch pattern, with a bowl carved 
into a death’s head, and great enough to hold a cake of 
tobacco. The skull might have been a child’s for size, and, 
though it was dyed with tobacco juice, and the top black- 
ened with the live coals which had been held to it, it was 
so finely carved that it looked very ghastly and terribly 
real in his hand as he sat puffing at it. 

He eyed me steadfastly while he smoked, as if critically 
taking stock of me, and presently said : “The devil hath 
an odd way of ordering matters. What particular merit 
have I that / should have been the one hit upon by you to 
thaw ! Had you brought anyone of the others to, he 
would have advised you against reviving us, and so I 
should have passed out of my frosty sleep into death as 
quietly — aye, and as painlessly, as that puff of smoke melts 
into clear air.” 

“ Then perhaps you do not think you are obliged by my 
awakening you to life ? ” said I. 

“ Yes, my friend, I am much obliged,” said he, with vivac- 
ity. “ Any fool can die. To live is the true business of 
life. Mark what you do ; you make me know tobacco 
again, you enable me to eat and drink, and these things 


ii6 THE FROZEN PIRATE, 

are pleasures which were denied me in that cabin there. 
You recall me to the enjoyment of my gains, nay, of more 
— of my own and the gains of our company. You make me, 
as you make yourself, a rich man ; the world opens before 
me anew, and very brilliantly — to be sure, I am obliged.” 

The world is certainly before you, as it is before me,” 
said I, “ but that’s all ; we have got to get there.” 

He flourished his pipe, and ’twas like the flight of Death 
through the gloomy fire-tinctured air. 

“That must come. We are two. Yesterday you were 
one, and I can understand your despair. But these arms 
— stupor has not wasted so much as the dark line of a fin- 
ger-nail of muscle. You too are no girl. Courage ! be- 
tween us we shall manage. How long is it since you 
sailed from England ?” 

“ We sailed last month a year from the Thames for 
Callao.” 

“And what is the news f ” said he, taking a pannikin of 
wine from the oven and sipping it. “ Last year ! 'Tis 
twelve years since I was in Paris, and three years since we 
had news from Europe.” 

News ! thought I ; to tell this man the news, as he calls 
it, would oblige me to travel over fifty years of history. 

“Why, Mr. Tassard,” said I, “there’s plenty of things 
happening, you know, for Europe’s full of kings and 
queens, and two or more of them are nearly always at log- 
gerheads; but sailors — merchantmen like myself — hear 
little of what goes on. We know the name of our own sover- 
eign and what wages sailors are getting ; that’s about it, 
sir. In fact, at this moment I could tell you more about 
Chili and Peru than England and France.” 

“ Is there war between our nations ?” he asked. 

“Yes,” said I. 

“ Ha ! ” he cried, “ I doubt if this time you will come off 
so easily. You have good men in Hawke and Anson ; but 
Jonquiere and St. Greorge, hey ? and Macon, Cellie, Le- 
tenduer ! ” 

He shook his head knowingly, and an air of compla- 
cency, that would be indescribable but for the word French, 
overspread his face. I knew the name of Jonquiere as an 
admiral who had fought us in 1748 or thereabouts ; of the 
others I had never heard. But I held my peace, which I 
suppose he put down to good manners, for he changed the 
subject by asking if I was married. I answered, “No,” 
and inquired if he had a wife. 


THE EROZEX PIRATE. 


7 


“ A wife !” cried he, “what should a man of my calling 
do with a wife ? No, no ! we gather sucli flowers as we 
want off the high seas, and wear them till the perfume 
palls. They prove stubborn, though ; our graces are not 
always relished. Trentanove reckoned himself the most 
killing among us, and by St. Barnabas lie proved so, for 
three ladies — passengers of beauty and distinction — slew 
themselves for his sake. Do you understand me ? They 
preferred the knife to his addresses. I,” said he, tapping 
his breast and grinning, “ was always fortunate.” 

He looked a complete satyr as he thus spoke, with his 
hairy cap, gray beard, long nose, little cunning, shining 
eyes, and broken fangs ; and a chill of disgust came upon 
me. But I had already seen enough of him to understand 
that he was a man of a very formidable character, and that 
lie had awakened after eight and forty years of insensibility 
as real a pirate at heart as ever he had been, and that it 
therefore behooved me to deal very warily with him, and 
above all not to let him suspect my thoughts. Yet he 
seemed a person superior to the calling he had adopted. 
His English was good, and his articulation indicated a 
quality of breeding. While he smoked his pipe out he told 
me a story of an action between this schooner and a French 
Indiaman. I will not repeat it ; it was mere butchery, 
with features of diabolical cruelty ; but what affected me 
more violently than tiie horrors of the narrative was his 
cool and easy recital of his own and the deeds of his com- 
panions. You saw that he had no more conscience in him 
than the death’s head he puffed at, and that his idea was 
there was no true greatness to be met with out of enormity. 
“ Well,” thouglit I, as I stepped to the corner for some coal, 
“ if I was afraid of this creature when he was dead, to what 
condition of mind shall I be reduced by his being alive ?” 


CHAPTER XVH. 

THE TREASURE. 

When his pipe was out he rose and made several strides 
about the cook-room, then took the lantern, and, entering 
the cabin, stood awhile surveying the place. 

“ So this would have been my coffin but for you, Mr. 
Rodney?” said lie. “I was in good company, though,” 


i8 


7' HE FROZEN PIRATE. 


pointing over his shoulder at the crucifix with his thumb. 
“ Lord, how the rogues prayed and cursed in this same 
cabin ! In fine weather, and when all was well, the sharks 
in our wake had more religion than they ; but the instant 
they were in danger, down they tumbled upon their quiv- 
ering knees, and if heaven was twice as big as it is, it 
could not have held saints enough for these varlets to pe- 
tition.” 

“ You were nearly all Spaniards ? ” 

“Ay; the worst class of men a ship could enter these 
seas with. But for our calling they are the fittest of all 
the nations of the world ; better, even, than the Portuguese, 
and with truer trade instincts than the trained mulatto — 
nimbler artists in roguery than ever a one of them. I de- 
spise their superstition, but they are the better pirates for 
it. They carry it as a man might a feather bed ; it enables 
them to fall soft. D'ye take me ?” He gave one of his 
short, loud laughs, and said: “I hope this slope won’t 
increase. The angle’s stiff enough as it is. ’Twill be like 
living on the roof of a house. I have a mind to see liow 
she lies. What d’ye say, Mr. Rodney ? Shall I venture 
into the open ? ” 

“Why not?” said I. “You can move briskly. You 
have as much life as you ever had.” 

“Let’s go, then,” he exclaimed, and, climbing the lad- 
der, he pushed open the companion door, and stepped 
onto the deck. I followed with but little solicitude, as 
you may suppose, as to what might attend his exposure. 
The blast of the gale, though it was broken into down- 
ward eddying dartings by the rocks, made him bawl out 
with the sting of it, and for some moments he could think of 
nothing but the cold, stamping the deck in his boots, and 
beating his hands. 

“ Ha !” cried he, grinning to the smart of his cheeks, 
“ this is not the cook-room, eh ? Great thunder, you will 
not have it that this ice has been drifting north ? Why, 
man, ’tis icier by twenty degrees than when we were first 
locked up.” 

“I hope not,” said I ; “and I think not. Your blood 
doesn’t course strong yet, and you are fresh from the fur- 
nace. Besides, it is blowing a bitter cold gale. Look at 
that sky, and listen to the thunder of the sea ! ” 

The commotion was indeed terribly uproarious. The 
spume as before was blowing in clouds of snow over the 
ice, and fled in very startling flashes of whiteness under 


THE EEOZEiV El RATE. 


119 

the livid drapery of the sky. The wind itself sounded like 
a prolonged echo of a discharge of monster ordnance, 
and it screeched and whistled hideously where it struck 
the peaks and edges of tlie cliffs and swept through the 
schooner’s masts. The rending noises of the icc in all di- 
rections were distinct and fearful. The Frenchman looked 
about him with consternation, and, to my surprise, crossed 
himself. 

“ May the blessed Virgin preserve us ! ” he said. “ Do 
you say we have drifted north ? If this is not the very 
heart of the south pole you shall persuade me we are on 
the equator.” 

“ It cannot storm too terribly for us, as you just now 
said,” I replied. “ I want this island to go to pieces.” 

As I said this a solid pillar of ice just beyond the brow 
of the hill on the starboard side was dislodged or blown 
down ; it fell with a miglity crash, and filled the air with 
crystal splinters. Tassard started back with a faint cry of 

Bon Dieu ! ” 

Judge for yourself how the ship lies,” said I ; “ this is 
freezing work.” 

He went aft and looked over the stern, then walked to 
the larboard rail and peered over the side. 

^‘Is there ice beyond that opening?” he asked, pointing 
over the taffrail. 

^‘No.” I answered ; “that goes to the sea. There is a 
low cliff beyond. Mark that cloud of white ; it is the 
spray hurled athwart the mouth of this hollow.” 

“ Good,” he mumbled, with his teeth chattering. “ The 
change is marvellous. There was ice for a quarter of a 
mile where that slope ends. ’Tis too cold to converse 
here.” 

“ There are your companions,” said I, pointing to the 
two bodies, lying a little distance before the mainmast. 

He marched up to them, and exclaimed : “ Yes, this is 
Trentanove and that is Barros. Both were blind, but they 
are blinder now. Would they thank you to arouse them 
out of their comfortable sleep, and force them to feel, as I 
do, this cold to which they are now as insensible as I was ? 
By lieaven, for my part, I can stand it no longer;” and 
with that he ran briskly to the hatch. 

I followed him to the cook-room, and he crept so close 
to the furnace that I thought he had a mind to roast him- 
self. No doubt, newly come to life as he was, the cold 
hurt him more than me, and maybe the tide of those ani- 


120 


rilE FROZEN PIRATE. 


mal spirits which had in his former existence furnished 
him with a brute courage had not yet flowed full to his 
mind ; still I questioned that even in his heyday, if there 
had ever been much more than the swashbuckler in him — 
which opinion, however, could only increase the anxiety 
his companionship was like to cause me by obliging me to 
understand that I must prepare myself for treachery, and 
on no account whatever to suppose for a moment that he 
was capable of the least degree of gratitude, or was to be 
swerved from any design lie might form by considerations 
of my claim upon him as his preserver. 

It is among the wonders of human nature that antagon- 
isms should be found to flourish under such conditions of 
hopelessness, misery, and anguish as make those who lan- 
guish under them the most pitiful wretches under God’s 
eye. But so it has been, so it is, so it will ever be. Two 
men in an open boat at sea, their lips frothing with thirst, 
their eyes burning wdth famine, shall fall upon each other 
and fight to the death. Two men on an island, two miser- 
able castaways whose dismal end can only be a matter of 
a week or two, eye each other morosely, give each other 
injurious words, break away and sullenly live, each man 
by himself, on opposite sides of their desert prison. 
Beasts do not act tlius, nor birds, nor reptiles — only man. 
What was in the Frenchman Tassard’s mind I do not 
know ; in mine was fear, dislike, profound distrust, a great 
uneasiness, albeit we were alone, we were brothers in afflic- 
tion and distress, as completely sundered from the world 
to whicli we belonged as if we lay stranded in the icy 
moon, speaking in the same tongue and believing in the 
same God ! 

The heat comforted him presently, and he put a lump of 
brandy into the oven to melt, and this comforted him also. 

“ I can converse now,” said he. “ Perhaps, after all, the 
danger lies more in the imagination than in tlie fact. But 
it is a hideous, naked scene, and needs no such coloring as 
the roaring of wind, the rushing of seas, and the crashing 
falls of masses of ice to render it frightful.” 

You tell me,” said I, “ that when you fell asleep ” — I 
would sometimes express his frozen state thus — “ there 
\vas a quarter of a mile of ice beyond the schooner’s 
stern ? ” 

“At least a quarter of a mile,” he answered. “Day 
after day it would be built up till it came to a face of that 
extent.” 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


I2I 


I thought to myself, if it has taken forty-eight years of 
the wear and tear of storm and surge to extinguish a 
quarter of a mile, how long a time must elapse before this 
island splits up? But then I reflected that during the 
greater part of those years this seat of ice had been stuck 
very low south, where the cold was so extreme as to make 
it defy dissolution ; that since then it was come away from 
the main and stealing north, so that what might have taken 
thirty years to accomplish in seventy degrees of south lati- 
tude might be perfonned in a day on the parallel of sixty 
degrees in the summer .season in these seas. 

Tassard continued speaking with the pannikin in his 
hand, and his eyes shut as if to get the picture of the 
schooner’s position fair before his mind’s vision : “ There 

was a quarter of a mile of ice beyond the ship ; I have it 
very plain in my sight ; it was a great muddle of hillocks, 
for the ice pressed thick and hard, and raised us and vom- 
ited up peaks and rocks to the squeeze. Suppose I have 
been asleep a week ? ” Here he opened his eyes and 
gazed at me. 

Well? ’’said I. 

“ I say,” he continued, in the tone of one easily excited 
into a passion, “a week. It will not have been more. It 
is impossible. Never mind about your eighteen hundred 
and one,” showing his fangs in a sarcastic grin ; “a week 
is long enough, friend. Then this is what I mean to say : 
That the breaking away of a quarter of a mile of ice in a 
week is fine work, full of grand promise ; the next wrench 
— which might come now as I speak, or to-morrow, or in a 
week — the next wrench may bring away the rock on which 
we are lodged, and the rest is a matter of patience — which 
we can afford, hey ? for we are but two — there is plenty of 
meat and liquor, and the reward afterward is a princely in- 
dependence, Mr. Paul Rodney.” 

I was struck with the notion of the bed of ice on which 
the schooner lay going afloat, and said: “Are sea and 
wind to be helped, think you ? If the block on which we 
lie could be detached, it might beat a bit against its 
parent stock, but would not unite again. The schooner’s 
canvas might be made to help it along — though suppose 
it capsized ! ” 

“We must consider,” said he ; “there is no need to 
hurry. When the wind falls we will survey the ice.” 

He warmed himself afresh, and, after remaining silent 
with the air of one turning many thoughts over in his 


122 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


mind, he suddenly cried : “ D’ye know, I have a mind to 

view the plate and money below ? What say you ? ” 

His little eyes seemed to' sparkle with suspicion as he di- 
rected them at me. I was confident he suspected I had lied 
in saying I knew nothing of this treasure, and that he 
wanted to see if 1 had meddled with those chests. One 
of the penalties attached to a man being forced to keep 
the company of liars is he himself is never believed by 
them. I answered instantly : “ Certainly, I should like 

to see this wonderful booty. It is right that we should 
find out at once if it is there ; for, supposing it vanished, 
we should be no better than madmen to sit talking here 
of the fine lives we shall live if we ever get home.” 

He picked up the lantern and said: “I must go to 
your cabin ; it was the captain’s. The keys of the chests 
should be in one of his boxes.” 

He marched off, and was so long gone I was almost of 
belief he had tumbled down in a fit. However, I had 
made up my mind to act a very wary part ; and particularly, 
never to let him think I distrusted him, and so I would 
not go to see what he was about. But what I did was 
this : The arms-room was next door ; I lighted a candle, 
entered it, and swiftly armed myself with a sort of dagger, 
a kind of boarding-knife, a very murderous little two- 
edged sword, the blade about seven inches long, and the 
haft of brass. There were some fifty of these weapons, 
and I took the first that came to my hand and dropped it 
into the deep side-pocket of my coat, and returned to the 
cook-room. It was not that I was afraid of going unarmed 
with this man into the hold ; there was no more danger to 
me there than here ; should he ever design to despatch me, 
one place was the same as another, for the dead above 
could not testify; there were no witnesses in this white 
and desolate kingdom. What resolved me to go armed 
was the fear that, should the treasure be missing — and 
who was to swear that the schooner had never been visited 
once in eight and forty years — the Frenchman, wlio was 
persuaded his stupor had not lasted above a week, and who 
was doubtless satisfied that the chests were in the hold 
down to the period when he took recollection, would 
suspect me of foul play, and, in the barbarous rage of a 
pirate, fall upon and endeavor to kill me. Thus you will 
see that I had no very high opinion of the morals and 
character of the man I had given life to ; and, indeed, after 
I had armed myself and was seated again before the fur- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 




nace, I felt extremely melancholy, and underwent the 
severest dejection of spirits that had yet visited me, fear- 
ing that my humanity had achieved nothing more than to 
bring me into the society of a devil, who would prove a 
fixed source of anxiety and misery to me. Was it conceiv- 
able that the others should be worse than, or even as bad 
as, this creature ? His hair showed him hoary in vice. The 
Italian was a handsome man, and let him have been as 
profligate as he would, as cruel and fierce a pirate as 
Tassard had painted him, and he would at all events have 
proved a sightly companion, and harmless as being blind, 
though, to be sure, for that reason of no use to me. Yet 
though his blindness would have made him a burden, I 
had rather have thawed him into life than the Frenchman. 

The mere thought of feeling myself under an obligation 
to arm myself filled me with such vindictive passions that 
I protest, as I sat alone waiting for him, I felt as though 
it were a duty I owed myself to return him to the condi- 
tion in which I found him, which was to be easily contrived 
by my binding him in his sleep and dragging him to the 
deck and leaving him to stupefy alongside the body of the 
giant, John Barros. “ Peace ! ” cried I to myself, with a 
shiver; “ villain that thou art to harbor such thoughts! 
Thou art a hundred-fold worse than the wretch against 
\vhom Satan is setting the plotting to think thus vilely.” 
I gulped dowm this bolus of conscience with the help of a 
draught of wine, and it did me good. Lord, how danger- 
ous is, loneliness to a man ! Depend upon it, your seeker 
after solitude is only hunting for the road that leads to 
Bedlam. 

It might be that he was long because of having to seek 
for the keys ; but my own conviction was that he found 
the keys easily and stayed to rummage the boxes for such 
jewels and articles of value as he might there find. I 
think he was gone near half an hour ; he then returned to 
the cook-house, saying briefly: “I have the keys,” and 
jingling them, and after warming himself, said : “Let us 

I was moving toward the forecastle. 

“ Not that way for the run,” cried he. 

“Is there a hatch aft ?” I asked. 

“Certainly ; in the lazarette.” 

“ I wish I had known that,” said I ; “I should have been 
spared a stifling scramble over the casks and raffle for- 
ward.” 


124 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


He led the way, and, coming to the trap-hatch that con- 
ducted to the lazarette, he pulled it open and we descended. 
He held the lantern and threw the light around him, and 
said : ^‘Aye, there are plenty of stores here. We reckoned 
upon provisions for twelve months, and we were seventy 
of a crew.” 

A strange figure he looked, just touched by the yellow 
candle-light, and standing out upon the blackness like some 
vision of a distempered fancy, in his hair cap and flaps, 
and with his long nose and beard, and little eyes shining 
^^e rolled them here and there. We made our way over 
the casks, bales, and the like, till we were right aft, and 
here there was a small clear space of deck in which lay a 
hatch. This he lifted by its ring and down through the 
aperture did he drop, I following. The lazarette deck 
came so low that we had to squat when still or move upon 
our knees. At the foremost end of this division of the 
ship, so far as it was possible for my eyes to pierce the 
darkness — for it seems that this run went clear to the fore- 
hold bulkhead, that is to say, under the powder-room, to 
where the forehold began — were stowed the spare sails, 

• ropes for gear, and a great variety of furniture for the 
equipment of a ship’s yards and masts. But immediately 
under the hatch stood several small chests and cases 
painted black, stowed side by side so that they could not 
shift. 

Tassard ran his eye over them, counting. “ Right ! ” 
cried he ; “hold the lantern, Mr. Rodney.” 

I took the light from him, and, pulling the keys from 
his pocket, he fell to trying them at the lock of the first 
chest. One fitted ; the bolt shot with a sharp click, like 
cocking a trigger, and he raised the lid. 

The chest was full of silver money. I picked up a 
couple of the coins and, bringing them to the candle, per- 
ceived them to be Spanish pieces of 1739. The money was 
tarnished, yet it reflected a sort of dull, metallic light. 
The Frenchman grasped a handful and dropped them, as 
though, like a child, he loved to hear the chink the pieces 
made as they fell. 

“ There’s a brave pocketful there,” I said. 

“Tut!” cried he, scornfully. “ ’Tis a mere show of 
money ; resolve it into gold and it becomes a lean bit of 
plunder. This we got from the Conqiiestador ; it was all 
she had in this way ; destined for some monastery, I recol- 
lect ; but disappointment is good for holy fathers ; it makes 


THE FROZE H PIRATE. 


. ^25 

them more earnest in their devotions and keeps their 
paunches from swelling.” 

He let fall the lid of the chest, which locked itself, and 
then, after a short trial of the keys, opened the one beside 
it. This was stored to the top with what I took to be pigs 
of lead, and when he pulled out one and bade me feel the 
weight of it I still thought it was lead, until he told me it 
was virgin silver. 

“ Tliis was good booty !” cried he, taking the lantern 
and swinging it over the blocks of metal. “ It would have 
been missed but for me. Our men had found it in the 
hold of the buccaneer in a chest half as deep again as this, 
and thought it to be a case of marmalade, for there were 
two layers of boxes of marmalade stowed on top. 1 routed 
these out and found those pretty bricks of ore snug be- 
neath. I believe Mendoza made the value of the two 
chests — silver though it be — to be equal to 6,000 pounds 
of your money. 

The next chest he opened was filled with jewelry of 
various kinds, the fruits, I dare say, of a dozen pillages, 
for not only had this pirate robbed honest traders but a 
picaroon as well, that had also plundered in her turn 
another of her own kidney ; so that, as I say, this chest of 
jewelry might represent the property of the passengers of 
as many as a dozen vessels. It was as if the contents of 
the shop of a jeweller who was at once a goldsmith and a 
silversmith had been emptied into this chest ; you could 
scarce name an ornament that was not here — watches, 
snuff-boxes, buckles, bracelets, pounce-boxes, vinaigrettes, 
earrings, crucifixes, stars for the hair, necklaces — but the 
list grows tiresome ; in silver and gold, but chiefly in gold ; 
all shot together and lying scramble fashion, as if they had 
been potatoes. 

‘'This is a fine sight,” said Tassard, poring upon the 
sparkling mass with falcon nose and ravenous eyes. 
“ Here is a dainty little watch. Fifty guineas would not 
purchase it in London or Paris. Where is the white breast 
upon which that cross there once glittered ? Ha ! the per- 
fume has faded,” bringing a vinaigrette to his hawk’s bill ; 
“ the soul is gone ; the body is the immortal part in this 
case. Now, my friend, talk to me of the patient drudgery 
of honorable life after this,” collecting the chests, so to say, 
to my view with a sweep of the hand : “ men will break 
their hearts for a hundred livres on shore and be hanged 
for the price of a pinchbeck dial. When I was in London 


126 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


I saw five men carted to the gallows ; one had forged, one 
was a highwayman — I forget the others’ businesses ; but 
I recollect, on inquiring the value of their baggings — that 
for which they were hanged — it did not amount to four 
guineas a man. Look at this ! ” He swept his great hand 
again over the chests. “ Is not here something worth go- 
ing to the scaffold for ?” 

His bosom swelled, his eyes sparkled, and he made as if 
to strike a heroic attitude, but this he could not contrive 
on his hams. 

I was thunderstruck, as you will suppose, by the sight 
of ail this treasure, and looked and stared like a fool, as if 
I was in a dream. I had never seen so many fine things 
before, and indulged in the most extravagant fancies of 
their worth. Here and there in the glittering huddle my 
eye lighted on an object that was a hundred, perhaps two 
hundred, years old ; a cup very choicely wrought, that 
may have been in a family for generations; a watch of a 
curious figure, and the like. There might have been the 
pickings of the cabins, trunks, and portmanteaux of a hun- 
dred opulent men and women in this chest, and, so far as I 
could judge from what lay atop, the people plundered 
represented several nationalities. 

But there were other chests and cases to explore — ten 
in all ; two of these were filled with silver money, a third 
with plate, a fourth with English, French, Spanish, and 
Portuguese coins in gold ; but the one over which Tassard 
hung longest, in a transport that held him dumb, was the 
smallest of all, and this was packed with gold in bars. 
The stuff had the appearance of mouldy yellow soap, and 
having no sparkle nor variety did not affect me as the 
jewelry had, though in value this chest came near to be- 
ing worth as much as all the others put together. The 
fixed, transported posture of the pirate, his little shining 
eyes intent upon the bars, his form in the. candle-light 
looking like a sketch of a strange, wildly-apparelled man 
done in phosphorus, coupled with the loom of the black 
chests, the sense of our desolation, the folly of our enjoy- 
ment of the sight of the treasure in the face of our piti- 
able and dismal plight, the melancholy storming of the 
wind, mourning like the rumble of thunder heard in a 
vault, and above all the feeling of unreality inspired by 
the thought of my companion having lain for eight and 
forty years as good as dead, combined to render the scene 
so strikingly impressive that it remains at this hour painted 


THE FROZEjV pirate. 


127 


as vividly upon the eye of memory as if I had come from 
it five minutes ago. 

“ So ! ” cried the Frenchman suddenly, slamming the 
lid of the chest. “Tis all here ! Now, then, to the busi- 
ness of considering how to come off with it.” 

He thrust the keys in his pocket, and we returned to 
the cook-room. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

WE TALK OVER OUR SITUATION. 

That night, as afterward, Tassard occupied the berth 
that he was used to sleep in before he was frozen. Al- 
though I had not then the least fear that he would attempt 
any malignant tricks with me while we remained in this 
posture, the feeling that he lay in the berth but one next 
mine made me uneasy in spite of my reasoning ; and I 
was so nervous as to silently shoot a great iron bolt, so 
that it would have been impossible to enter without beat- 
ing the door in. 

In sober truth, the sight of the treasure had put a sort 
of fever into my imagination, of the heat and effects of 
which I was not completely sensible until I was alone in 
my cabin and swinging in the darkness. That the value of 
what I had seen came to ninety or a hundred thousand 
pounds of our money, I could not doubt; and I will 
not deny that my fancy was greatly excited by think- 
ing of it. But there was something else. Suppose we 
should have the happiness to escape with this treasure, 
then I was perfectly certain the Frenchman would come 
between me and my share of it. This apprehension 
threading my heated thoughts of the gold and silver, 
kept me restless during the greater part of the night, and 
I also held my brains on the stretch with devices for sav- 
ing ourselves and the treasure ; yet I could not satisfy 
my mind that anything was to be done unless nature her- 
self assisted us in freeing the schooner. 

However, as it happened, the gale roared for a whole 
week, and the cold was so frightful and the air so charged 
with spray and hail that we were forced to lie close below 
with the hatches on for our lives. It was true Cape Horn 
weather, with seas as high as cliffs, and a westering ten- 
dency in the wind that flung sheets of water through the 


128 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


ravine, which must have quickly filled the hollow and 
built us up in ice to the height of the rails, but for the 
strong slope down which the water rushed as fast as it was 
hurled. 

I never needed to peep an inch beyond the companion- 
way to view the sky ; nor, for the matter of that, was there 
any occasion to ever leave the cabin to guess at the 
weather, for the perpetual thunder of it echoed strong in 
every part of the vessel below, and the whole fabric was 
constantly shivering to the blows of the falls of water on 
her decks. 

At first the Frenchman and I would sit in the greatest 
fear imaginable, constantly expecting some mighty disas- 
ter, such as the rending of the ice under our keel and our 
being swallowed up, or the coming together of the slopes 
in such a manner as to crush the ship, or the fall upon 
her of ice weighty enough to beat her flat ; though per- 
haps this we least feared, for unless the storm changed 
the whole face of the cliffs, there "was no ice in our neigh- 
borhood to serve us in this way. But as the time slipped 
by and nothing worse happened than one sharp movement 
only in the vessel following the heels of a great noise like 
a cannon discharged just outside ; though this movement 
scared us nearly out of our senses, and held us in a manner 
dumbfounded for the rest of the day ; I say, the time pass- 
ing and nothing more terrifying than what I have related 
happening, we took heart and waited with some courage 
and patience for the gale to break, never doubting that 
we should find a wonderful change when we surveyed the 
scene from the heights. 

We lived well, sparing ourselves in nothing that the 
vessel contained, the abundance rendering stint idle ; the 
Frenchman cooked, for he was a^ better hand than I at 
that work, and provided several relishable sea-pies, cakes, 
and broths. As for liquor, there was enough on board to 
drown the pair of us twenty times over : wines of France, 
Spain, Portugal, very choice fine brandy, rum in plenty — 
such variety, indeed, as enabled us to brew a different 
kind of punch every day in the seven. But we were much 
more careful with the coal, and spared it to the utmost by 
burning the hammocks, bedding, and chests that lay in the 
forecastle ; that is to say, we burnt these things by de- 
grees, the stock being excessive, and by judiciously mix- 
ing them with coal and wood, they made good warming 
fires, and as tinder lasted long too. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


129 


We occupied one morning in thoroughly overhauling 
the forecastle for such articles of value as the sailors had 
dropped or forgotten in their flight ; but found much less 
than I had expected from the sight of the money and other 
things on the deck. There was little in this way to be 
found in the cabins ; I mean in the captain’s cabin which 
I used, and the one next it that had been the mate’s, for of 
course I did not search Mr. Tassard’s berth. But though 
it was quite likely that the seamen had plundered these 
cabins before they left the ship, I was also sure that the 
Frenchman had made a clean sweep of wliat they had over- 
looked when he pretended to search for the keys of the 
treasure chests, and this suspicion I seemed to find con- 
firmed by the appearance of the captain’s boxes. One of 
these boxes contained books, papers, a telescope, some nau- 
tical instruments, and the like. I looked at the books and 
the papers, in the hope of finding something to read ; but 
they were written and printed in the Spanish tongue, and 
might have been Hebrew for all the good they were to me. 

Our life was extraordinarily dismal and melancholy ; 
how much so I am unable to express. It was just the 
same as living in a dungeon. There was no crevice for 
the daylight to shine through, and had there been we must 
have closed it to keep the cold out. Nothing could be 
imagined more gloomy to the spirits tlian the perpetual 
night of the schooner’s interior. The furnace, it is true, 
would, when it flamed, heartily throw a brightness about 
it ; but often it sunk into redness that did but empurple 
the gloom. We burned but one candle at a time, and its 
light was very small, so that our time was spent chiefly in 
a sullen twilight. Added to all this was my dislike of my 
companion. He would half fuddle himself with liquor, 
and in that condition hiccup out twenty kinds of villain- 
ous yarns of murder, piracy, and bloodshed, boasting of 
the number of persons he had despatched, of his system of 
torturing prisoners to make them confess what they had 
concealed and where. He would drivel about his amours, 
about the style in which he lived when ashore, and the 
like ; but whether reticence had grown into a habit too 
strong even for drink to break down, he never once gave 
me so much as a hint touching his youth and early life. 
He was completely a Frenchman in his vanity, and you 
would have thought him entirely odious and detestable 
for this excessive quality in him alone. Methinks 1 see 
him now, sitting b^ore me, with one-half of him reflecting 

9 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


130 

the light of the furnace, his little eyes twinkling with a 
cruel merriment 'of wine, telling me a lying story of the 
adoration of a noble, queenly-looking captive for his per- 
son — some lovely Spanish court lady whom, with others, 
they had taken out of a small frigate bound to old Spain. 
To test her sincerity he offered to procure her liberty at 
the first opportunity that offered ; but she wept, raved, 
tore her hair. No ; without her Jules life would be unen- 
durable ; her husband, her country, her king, nay, even 
the allurements and sparkle of the court, had grown dis- 
gusting ; and so on, and so. And I think a monkey would 
have burst into laughter to see the bald-headed old satyr 
beat his bosom, flourish his arms, ogle, languish, and sim- 
per, all with a cut-throat expression too, soften his voice, 
and act in short as if he was not telling me as big a lie as 
was ever related on shipboard. 

It naturally rendered me very melancholy to reflect that 
I had restored this old villain to life, and I protest it was a 
continuous shock to such religious feelings as I had man- 
aged to pi:eserve, to reflect that what had been as good 
as nearly half a century of death had done nothing for 
this elderly rogue’s morals. It entered my head once to 
believe that if I could succeed in getting him to believe 
he had lain frozen for eight and forty years, he might be 
saved with a fright (for he was a white-livered creature) and 
in some directions mend, and so come to a sense of the 
service I had done him, of which he appeared wholly in- 
sensible, and qualify me to rid my mind of the fears which 
I entertained concerning our association, should we man- 
age to escape with the treasure. I said to him bluntly — 
not apropos (to use his own lingo) of anything we were 
talking about : 

“’Tis odd, Mr. Tassard, you should doubt my assurance 
that this is the year 1801.” 

He stared, grinned, and said : “Do you think so ?” 

“Weil,” said I, “perhaps it is not so odd after all ; but 
you should suffer me to have as good an idea of the pas- 
sage of time as yourself. You cannot tell me how long 
your stupor lasted.” 

“Two days, if you like!” he interrupted, vehemently. 
“ Why more ? Why longer than a day ? How do you 
know that I had sunk into the condition in which you 
found me longer than an hour or two when you landed ? 
How do you know, hey? How do you know?” and he 
snapped his fingers. ^ 


THE FROZEN FJRAl'E. 


“ I know by the date you name and by the year that this 
is," said I, defiantly. 

He uttered a coarse French expression and added, “You 
want to prove that I have been insensible for forty-eight 
years " 

“ It is the fact," said I. 

He looked so wild and fierce that I drew myself erect, 
ready for him if he should fall upon me. Then, slowly 
wagging his head while the anger in his face softened out, 
he said, “Who reigns in France now?" 

I said, “There is no king ; he was beheaded." 

“ What was his name ? " said he. 

“ Louis the Sixteenth," I answered. 

“Ha!" cried he, with an arch sneer, “Louis the Six- 
teenth, hey ? Are you sure it wasn’t Louis the Seven- 
teenth ? " 

“ He is dead too.” 

“ This is news, Mr. Rodney," said he, scornfully. 

“ While you have been here," said I, “ many mighty 
changes have happened. France has produced as great a 
general and as dangerous a villain as the world ever be- 
held ; his name is Bonaparte.” 

He shrugged his shoulders with an air of mocking 

pity- 

“ Who !S your king? " he asked. 

“George the Third," said I ; “ God bless him ! " 

“ So ; George and Louis — Louis and George. I sea^ 
how it is. Stick to your dates, sir. But, my friend, never 
set up as a schoolmaster." 

This sally seemed to delight him, and he burst into a 
loud laugh. 

“Eighteen hundred and one!" he cried. “A man I 
knew once lost ten thousand livres at a coup. What do 
you think happened ? They settled in him here," he pat- 
ted his belly ; “ he went about bragging to everybody that 
he was made of money, and was nicknamed the walking 
bourse. One day he asked a friend to dine with him ; 
when the bill was presented he felt in his pockets, and 
exclaimed : ‘I left my purse at home. No matter ; there 
is plenty here ! ’ with which he seized a table knife and 
ripped himself open. Eighteen hundred and one, d’ye 
call it ? Soit. But let it be your touch, my friend. The 
world will not love you for making it fifty years older 
than it is." 

It was ridiculous to attempt to combat such obstinacy 


.^2 


THE FROZEM PIRATE. 


as this, and as the subject produced nothing but excite- 
ment and irritation, I dropped it, and meddled with it no 
more, leaving him to his conviction that I was cracked in 
this one particular. In fact, it was a matter of no conse- 
quence at all ; what came closer home was the business of 
our deliverance, and over this we talked long and very 
earnestly, for he forgot to be mean and fierce and boast- 
ful, and I to dislike and fear him, when we spoke of get- 
ting away wdth our treasure, and returning to our native 
home. 

For hour after hour would we go on plotting and plan- 
ning and scheming, stepping about the cook-house in our 
earnestness, and entirely engrossed with the topic. His 
contention was that if we were to save the money and 
plate, we must save the schooner. 

“ Unless we build a vessel,” said I. 

“ Out of what ? ” 

“Out of this schooner.” 

“Are you a carpenter ?” said he. 

“No,” I replied. 

“Neither am I,” said he. “ It's possible we might con- 
trive such a structure as would enable us to save our lives ; 
but we have not the skill to produce a vessel big enough 
to contain those chests as well as ourselves, and the stores 
Ave should require to take. Besides, do you know there 
is no labor more fatiguing than knocking such a craft as 
this to pieces ? ” 

This I well believed, and it was truer of such a vessel 
as the Boca del Dragon, that was a perfect bed of timbers, 
and, like the Laughing Mary, built as if she was to keep 
the seas for three hundred years. 

“And supposing,” said he, “after infinite toil we suc- 
ceeded in breaking up as much of her as we wanted, what 
appliances have we for reshaping the curved timbers? and 
where are we to lay the keel ? Labor as we might, the 
cold would prove too much for us. No, Mr. Rodney, to 
save the treasure, ay, and to save ourselves, we must save 
the ship. Let us put our minds to that.” 

In this way we would reason, and I confess he talked 
verv sensibly, taking very practical views, and indicating 
difficulties which my more ardent and imaginative nature 
might have been blind to till they immovably confronted 
one, and rendered days of labor useless. But how was the 
ship to be saved ? Was it possible to force Nature’s hand ? 
in other words, to anticipate our release by the dissolution 


THE FROZEN PIR4TE. 


133 


of the ice ? We were both agreed that this was the winter 
season in tliese seas, though he instantly grew sulky if I 
mentioned the month, for he was as certain that I was as 
mad in this as in the year, and he would eye me very 
malignantly if I persisted in calling it July. But, as I have 
said, we were both agreed that the summer was to come, 
and thougli we could not swear that tlie ice was floating 
northward, we had a right to believe so, in spite of the 
fierceness of the cold, this being the trick of all these 
frozen estates when they pitch to the heights under which 
we lay ; and we would ask each other whether we should 
let our hands and minds rest idle, and wait to see what the 
summer would do for us, or essay to launch the schooner. 

“ If,” said he, “ we wait for the ice to break up it may 
break us up too.” 

“ Yes,” said I ; “but how are we to cut the vessel out of 
the ice in which she is sealed to above thegarbraid streak ? 
Waiting is odious and intolerable work ; but my own con- 
viction is, nothing is to be done till the sun comes this way, 
and the ice crumbles into bergs. The island is leagues 
long, and vanishes in the south ; but it is wasting fast in 
the north, and when this gale is done I shall expect to see 
twenty bergs where it was before all compact.” 

As you may guess, our long conversations left us with- 
out plans, bitter as was our need, and vigorous as were 
our efforts to strike upon some likely scheme. However, 
if they achieved no more, they served to beguile the time, 
and, what was better yet, they took my companion’s mind 
off his nauseous and revolting recollections, so that it was 
only now and again, when he had drained a full bowl, and 
his little eyes danced in their thick-shagged caves, that he 
regaled me with his memories of murder, rapine, plank- 
walking, hanging, treacheries of all kinds, and cruelties too 
barbarous for belief. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

WE TAKE A VIEW OF THE ICE. 

For seven days the gale raged with uncommon vio- 
lence ; it then broke, and this brought us into the first 
week of August. The wind fell in the night, and I was 
awakened by the silence — which you will not think strange 


134 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


if you consider how used were my ears to the fierce seeth- 
ing and strong bellowing of the blast. I lay listening, be- 
lieving that it had only veered, and that it would come on 
again in gusts and guns ; but the stillness continued, and 
there was no sound whatever, saving the noise of the ice, 
which broke upon the ear like slow answers from batteries 
near and distant whose cannons have been silenced. 

I slept again, and when I awoke it was half-past seven 
o’clock in the morning. The Frenchman was snoring 
lustily. I went on deck before entering the cook-house, 
and had like to have been blinded by tlie astonishing bril- 
liance of the sunshine upon the ice and snow. All the 
wind was gone. The air was exquisitely frosty and sharp. 
But there was a heavy sound coming from the sea which 
gave me to expect the sight of a strong swell. The sky 
was a clear blue, and there was no cloud on as much of 
its face as showed betwixt the brows of the slopes. 

The schooner was a most wonderful picture of drooping 
icicles. A more beautiful and radiant sight you could not 
figure. From every rope, from the yards forward, from 
the rails, from whatever water could run in a stream from, 
hung glorious ice pendants of prismatic splendor. No 
snow had fallen to frost the surfaces, and every pendant 
was as pure and polished as cut glass and reflected a hun- 
dred brilliant colors. The water hurled over and on the 
schooner had frozen upon the masts, rigging, and decks, 
and as this ice, like the pendants, was very sparklingly 
bright, it gave back all the lines of the sunbeam, so that, 
stepping from the darkness of the cabin into this effulgent 
scene, you might easily have persuaded yourself that before 
you stood the fabric of a ship fashioned out of a rainbow. 

My attention, however, was quickly withdrawn from this 
shining spectacle by the appearance of the starboard cleft 
over against our quarter. The whole shoulder of it had 
broken away, and I could just catch a view of the horizon 
of the sea from the deck by stretching my figure. This 
sight of the ocean showed me that the breakage had been 
prodigious, for to have come at that prospect before I 
should have had to climb to the height of the main lower 
masthead. No other marked or noteworthy change did I 
detect from the deck ; but on stepping to the larboard side 
to peer over I spied a split in the ice that reached from 
the very margin of the ravine, I mean to that end of it 
where it terminated in a cleft, and passed the bows of the 
schooner by at least four times her own length. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


135 


I returned to the cook-room and went about the old 
business of lighting the fire and preparing the break- 
fast — this job, by an understanding between the French- 
man and me, falling to liim who was first out of bed — and 
in about twenty minutes Tassard arrived. 

“ The wind is gone,” said he. 

“ Yes,” I replied, “ it is a bright, still morning. I have 
been on deck. There has been a great fall of ice close 
to.” 

“ Does it block us ? ” 

“ No, on the contrary, it clears the way to the sea ; the 
ocean is now visible from the deck. Not that it mends 
our case,” I added. “ But there is a great rent in the ice 
that puts a fancy into my head ; I’ll speak of it later, after 
a closer look.” 

The breakfast was ready, and we fell to in a hurry, the 
Frenchman gobbling like a hog in his eagerness to make 
an end. When we were finished he wrapped himself up 
in three or four coats and cloaks, warming the under ones 
before folding them about him, and completing his pre- 
parations for the excursion by swallowing half a pint of 
raw brandy. I bade him arm himself with a short-headed 
spear to save his neck, and thus equipped we went on 
deck. 

He stood stock-still with his eyes shut on emerging 
through the hatch, crying out with a number of French 
oaths that he had been struck blind. This I did not be- 
lieve, though I readily supposed that the glare made his 
eyeballs smart so as to cause him a good deal of agony. 
Indeed, all along I had been surprised that he should have 
found his sight so easily after having sat in blindness for 
forty-eight years, and it was not wonderful that the amaz- 
ing brilliance on deck, smiting his sight on a sudden, 
should have caused him to cry out as if he had lost the 
use of his eyes for ever. 

I waited patiently, and in about ten minutes he was able 
to look about him, and then it was not long before he could 
see without pain. He stood a minute gazing at the glories 
upon the rigging, and in that piercing light I noticed the 
unwholesome color of his face. His cap hid the scar, and 
nothing of his countenance was to be seen but the cheeks, 
eyes, and nose ; he was very much more wrinkled than I 
had supposed, and methought the spirit of cruelty lay visi- 
ble in every line. I had never seen eyes so full of cunning 
and treachery — so expressive, I should say, of these quali- 


136 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


ties ; yet they were no bigger than mere punctures. I was 
sensible of a momentary fear of the man — not, let me say, 
an emotion of cowardice — but a sort of mixture of alarm 
and awe, such as a ghost might inspire. This I put down 
to the searching light in which I watched him for a mo- 
ment or two, an irradiation subtle enough to give the sharp- 
est form to expression, to exquisitely define every meaning 
that was distinguishable in his graveyard physiognomy. I 
left him to stare and judge for himself of the posture in 
which the long, hard gale had put the schooner, and stepped 
over to the two bodies. They were shrouded in ice from 
head to foot, as though they had each man been packed in a 
glass case cunningly wrought to their shapes. Their faces 
were hid by the crystal masks. Tassard joined me. 

“ vSmall chance for your friends now,” said I, “even if 
you were agreeable to my proposal to attempt to revive 
them.” 

“ So ! ” cried he, touching the body of the mate with his 
foot ; “ and this is the end of the irresistible Trentanove ! 
for what conquests has Death robed him so bravely ? See, 
the colors shine in him like fifty different kinds of ribbons. 
Poor fellow! he could not curl his moustachios now, though 
the loveliest eyes in Europe were fixed in passionate admira- 
tion on him. He’ll never slit another throat, nor hiccough 
Petrarch over a goblet full, nor remonstrate with me for 
my humanity. Shall we toss the bodies over the side ? ” 

“They are your friends,” said I ; “do as you please.” 

“ But we must empty their pockets first. Business be- 
fore sentiment, Mr. Rodney.” 

He stirred the figure again with his foot. 

“Well, presently,” said he, “this armor will want the 
hatchet. Now, my friend, to view the work of the gale.” 

The increased heel of the ship brought the larboard fore- 
channel low, and we stepped without difficulty from it on 
to the ice. The rent or fissure that I have before spoken 
of went very deep, it was nearly two feet wide in places, 
but, though the light poured brilliantly upon it, I could 
see no bottom. 

“If only such another split as this would happen t’other 
side,” said the Frenchman, “ I believe this block would go 
adrift.” 

“Well,” said I, after musing a little while I ran my eye 
over the hollows, “ I’ll tell you what was in my mind just 
now. There is a great quantity of gunpowder in the hold ; 
ten or a dozen barrels. By dropping large parcels of it 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


137 


into the crevices on the right there, and firing with slow 
matches^ " 

He interrupted me with a cry : “ By St. Paul, you have 
it ! What crevices have you ? ” 

We walked briskly around the vessel, and all about her 
beam and starboard quarter I found, in addition to the 
seams I had before noticed, many great cracks and fissures, 
caused no doubt by the fall of the shoulder of the slope. 
1 pushed on further yet, going down the ravine, as I have 
called it, until I came to the edge ; and here I looked down 
from a height of some twelve or fourteen feet — so greatly 
had the ice sunk or been changed by the weather — upon 
the ocean. I called to Tassard. He approached warily. 
I firmly believe he feared I might be tempted to give him 
a friendly shove over the edge. 

“ Observe this hollow,” said I ; “ the split there goes 
down to the water, and you may take it that the block is 
wholly disconnected on that side. Now look at the face 
of the ice,” said I, pointing to the starboard or right-hand 
side ; “ that crack goes as far as the vessel's quarter, and 
the weakness is carried on to past the bows by the other 
rents. Mr. Tassard, if we could burst this body of ice by 
an explosion from its moorings ahead of the bowsprit, 
ivhere it is all too compact, this cradle with the schooner 
in it will go free of the parent body.” 

He answered promptly : “ Yes ; it is the one and only 
plan. That crack to starboard is like telling us what to 
do. It is well you came here. We should not have seen 
It from the top. This valley runs steep. You must ex- 
pect no more than the surface to be liberated, for the foot 
of the cliff will go deep.” 

I desire no more.” 

Will the ship stand such a launch, supposing we bring 
it about ? ” said he. 

1 responded with one of his own shrugs and said : “ Noth- 
ing is certain. We have one of two co^irses to choose : to 
venture this launch or stay till the ice breaks up, and take 
our chance of floating or of being smashed.” 

“You are right,” he exclaimed. “Here is an oppor- 
tunity. If we wait, bergs may gather about this point and 
build us in. As to this island dissolving, we are yet to 
know which way 'tis heading. Supposing it should be 
travelling south, hey!” 

He struck the ice with his spear, and we toiled up the 
slippery rocks with difficulty to the ship. We walked past 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


138 

the bows to the distance of the vessel’s length. Here were 
many deep holes and cracks, and as if we were to be 
taught how these came about, even while we were viewing 
them an ear-splitting crash of noise happened within 
twenty fathoms of us, a rock many tons in weight rolled 
over, and left a black gulf behind it. 

The Frenchman started, muttered, and crossed him- 
self. “ Holy Virgin ! ” he cried, rolling his eyes. “ Let 
us return to the schooner. We shall be swallowed up 
here.” 

I own I was not a little terrified myself by the sudden 
loud blast of the thunder of the uprooted rock, and the 
sight of the huge black rent ; but I meant to view the scene 
from the top, and to consider how best to dispose of the 
powder in the cracks, and said : “ There is nothing to be 
done on board, skulking below will not deliver us or pre- 
serve the treasure. Here, are several fissures big enough 
to receive barrels of gunpowder. See, Mr. Tassand, as they 
stand they cover the whole width of the hollow. 

And I proceeded to give him my ideas as to lowering, 
fixing the barrels, and the like. He nodded his head and 
said, “ Yes, very good ; yes, it will do,” and so on ; but 
was too scared in his heart, I believe, to see my full mean- 
ing. He was perpetually moving, as if he feared the ice 
would split under his feet, and his eyes travelled over the 
face of the rocks with every manifestation of alarm in 
their expression. I wondered how so poor a creature 
should ever have had stomach enough to serve as a pirate ; 
no doubt his spirit had been enfeebled by his long sleep ; 
but then it is also true that the greatest bullies and most 
bloodthirsty rogues prove themselves despicable curs un- 
der conditions which make no demand upon their tem- 
per or their lust for plunder. 

He would have returned to the ship, no doubt, had I 
encouraged him, but on seeing me start to climb to the 
brow, he followed. The prospect disappointed me. I 
had expected to see a variety of surprising changes ; but 
southward the scene was scarce altered. It was a wonder- 
fully fair morning, the sky clear from sea-line to sea-line, 
and of a very soft blue, the ocean of a like hue, with a high 
swell running that was a majestic undulation even at the 
height at which I surveyed it. The sun stood over the ice 
in the northeast and the dazzle kept me weeping, so intol- 
erable was the eft'ulgence. Half of the delicate architect- 
ure that had enriched the slopes and surfaces that way was 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


139 


swept down, and ice lay piled in places to an elevation of 
many feet, where before it had been flat or hollow. How- 
ever, there was no question but that the gale had played 
havoc with the north extremity of the island ; I counted 
no less than twenty bergs floating off the main, and it was 
quite likely the sea was crowded beyond, though my sight 
could not travel so far. 

However, when I came to look close, and to recollect 
the features of the shore as they showed when I first 
landed, I found some vital changes near at hand. Where 
my haven had been, the ice had given way and left a gap 
half a mile broad and a hundred feet deep. The fall on 
the schooner’s starboard quarter was very heavy, and the 
ice was split in all directions ; and i^^ parts was so loose 
that a point of cliff hard upon the sea rocked with the 
swell. When Tassard came to a stand he looked about 
him north and south, shading his eyes with his hand, and 
then swearing very savagely in French ; he cried out in 
English, freely employing oaths as he spoke : 

“Why, here’s as much ice as there was before I fell 
asleep! See yonder!” pointing to the south. “It dies 
out in the distance. If it does not join the pole there, may 
the devil rise before me as I speak. Thunder and fury ! 
I had hoped to see it shrivelled to an ordinary berg ! ” 

“ What ! ill a week ? ” cried I, as if I believed ids stupor 
had not lasted longer. 

He returned no answer, and gaped about him full of 
consternation and passion. 

“And are we to wait for our deliverance till this conti- 
nent breaks up ? ” he bawled. “ The day of judgment will 
be a thing of the past by that time. Travelling north ! 
’sdeath !” he roared, his mouth full of the expletives of his 
day, French and English. “ Who but a madman could sup- 
pose that this ice is not as fixed as the Antarctic circle to 
which it is moored ? Why, six months ago it ^vas no big- 
ger than it is now !” And he sent a furious, terrified gaze 
into the white solitude vanishing in azure faintness in the 
southwest. 

It was not a thing to reason upon. I was as much dis- 
appointed as he by the trifling changes the gale had made, 
and my heart felt very heavy at the sight of the great field 
disappearing in the south. The bergs in the north signi- 
fied little. It is true they indicated demolition, but demo- 
lition so slow as to be worthless to us. It was not to be 
questioned that the island was proceeding north, but at 


140 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


what rate ? Here, perhaps, might be a frozen crescent of 
forty or fifty leagues ; and at what speed, appreciable 
enough to be of the least consequence to our calculations, 
should such a body travel ? 

I looked at the Frenchman. 

“Tliis must decide us,” said I. “We must fix on one of 
two courses : endeavor to launch the ship by blowing up the 
ice, or turn to and rig up the best arrangement we can con- 
trive and put to sea.” 

“ Yes,” he answered, scowling, as he darted his enraged 
eyes over the ice. “ Better set a slow match in the maga- 
zine and drink ourselves senseless, and so blow ourselves 
to hell, than linger here in the hope that this continent 
wdll dissolve and release us. Where’s Mendoza’s body ? ” 

I stared about, me, and then, pointing to the huge gap 
the ice had made, answered : “ It was there. Where it is 
now I know not.” 

He shrugged his shoulders, took another view of the ice 
and the ocean, and then cried impatiently : “Let us re- 
turn ! the powder-barrels must have the first chance.” And 
he made for the schooner, savagely striking the ice with 
his spear, and growling curses to himself as he plunged 
and climbed and pumped his way along. 


CHAPTER XX. 

A MERRY EVENING. 

By the time we had reached the bottom of the hollow, 
Tassard was blowing like a bellows with the uncommon 
exertion ; and, swearing that he felt the cold penetrating 
his bones, and that he should be stupefied again if he did 
not mind, he climbed into the ship and disappeared. I 
loved him so little that secretly I very heartily wished that 
nature would make away with him — I mean that some- 
thing it would be impossible in me to lay to my conscience 
should befall him — as becoming comatose again, and so 
lying like one dead. Assuredly, in such a case it was not 
this hand that would have wasted a drop of brandy in re- 
turning an evil, white-livered, hectoring old rascal to a life 
that smelled foully with him and the like of him. 

It was so still a day that the cold did not try me sorely ; 
there was vitality if not warmth in the light of the sun, 


THE FROZEN P/RATE, 


141 

and I was heated with clambering. So I stayed a full half- 
hour after my companion had vanished examining the ice 
about the schooner — which careful inspection repaid me 
to the extent of giving me to see that, if by blasts of gun- 
powder I could succeed in rupturing the ice ahead of the 
schooner’s bows, there was a very good chance of the mass 
on which she lay going adrift. Yet I will not deny that, 
though I recognized this business of dislocation as our 
only chance-r-for I could see little or nothing to be done 
in the way of building a boat proper to swim and ply — I 
foreboded a dismal issue to our adventure, even siiould 
we succeed in separating this block upon the main. In 
fine, what I feared was that the weight of the schooner 
would overset the ice and drown her and us. 

I entered the ship, and found Tassard roasting himself 
in the cook-house. 

“ How melancholy is this gloom,” said I, “ after the 
glorious white sunshine ! ” 

‘•Yes,” said he, “but it is warm. That is enough for 
me. Curse the cold, say I. It robs a man of all spirit. 
To grapple with this rigor one should have fed all one’s 
life on blubber. I defy a man to be brave when he is half 
frozen. I feel a match for any three men now ; but on the 
heights a flea would have made me run.” 

He pulled a pot from the bricks and filled his pan- 
nikin. 

“I have been surveying the ice,” said I, drawing to the 
furnace, “ and have very little doubt tliat if we wisely be- 
stow the powder in great quantities we shall succeed in 
dislocating the bed on which we are lying.” 

“Good ! ” he cried. 

“ But after? ” said I. 

“ What ? ” 

“As much of this bed as may be dislodged will not be 
deep ; icebergs, as of course you know, capsize in conse- 
quence of their becoming top-heavy by the wasting of the 
bulk that is submerged. This block will make but a small 
berg should we liberate it, and I very much fear that the 
weight of this schooner will overset it the instant we are 
launched.” 

“ Body of Moses !” he cried, angrily, knitting his brows, 
whereby he stretched the scar to half its usual width, “what’s 
to be done, then ? ” 

“ She is a full ship,” said I, “ and weighty. If the liber- 
ated ice be thin she may sit upon it and keep it under. 


142 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


We have a right to hope in that direction, perhaps. Yet 
there is another consideration. She may leak like a sieve.” 

“Why? ” he exclaimed. “She took the ice smoothly ; 
she has not been strained ; she was as tight as a bottle be- 
fore she stranded ; the coating of ice will have cherished 
her ; and a stout ship like this does not suffer from six 
months of lying up !” 

Six months, thought I ! 

“ Well, it may be as you say ; but if she leaks, it will not • 
be in our four arms to keep her free.” 

He exclaimed, hotly, “ Mr. Rodney, if we are to escape 
we must venture something. To stay here means death 
in the end. I am persuaded that this ice is joined with 
some vast main body far south, and that it does not move. 
What is there, then, to wait for ? There is promise in your 
gunpowder proposal. If she capsizes, then the devil will 
get his own.” And witli a savage flourish of the pannikin 
he put it to his lips and drained it. 

His sullen determination that we should stand or fall by 
my scheme was not very useful to me. I had looked for 
some shrewdness in him, some capacity of originating and 
weighing ideas ; but I found he could do little more than 
curse and swagger and ply his can, in which he found 
most of his anecdotes and recollections and not a little of 
his courage. I pulled out my watch, as I must call it, and 
observed that it was hard upon one o’clock. 

“’Tis lucky,” said he, eyeing the watch greedily and com- 
ing to it away from the great subject of our deliverance as 
though the sight of the fine gold thing, with its jewelled 
letter, extinguished every other thought in him, “tliat you 
removed that watch from Mendoza. But he will have car- 
ried other good things to the bottom with him, I fear.” 

“ His flask and tobacco-box I took away,” said I. “ He 
had nothing of consequence besides.” 

“ They must go into tlie common chest,” cried he ; “ ’tis 
share and share, you know.” 

“ Ay,” said I, “ but what I found on Mendoza is mine by 
the highest right under heaven. If I had not taken the 
things they would now be at the bottom of the sea.” 

“ What of that ? ” cried he, savagely. “ If we had not 
plundered the galleon she might have been wrecked and 
taken all she had down with her. Yet, shouM such a con- 
sideration hinder a fair division as between us — between 
you, who had nothing to do with the pillage, and me, who 
risked my life in it ?” 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


143 


I said, “Very well; be it as you say,” appearing to 
consent, for there was something truly absurd in an alter- 
^H^ation about a few guineas’ worth of booty in the face of 
our melancholy and most perilous situation ; though it 
not only enabled me to send a deeper glance into the mind 
of this man than I had yet been able to manage, but made 
me understand a reason for the bloody and furious quar- 
rels which have again and again arisen among persons 
standing on. the brink of eternity, to whom a cup of drink 
or the sigiit of a ship had been more precious than the 
contents of the bank of England. 

I set about getting the dinner. 

“ While you are at that work,” cried he, starting up, 
“I’ll overhaul the pockets of the bodies on deck;” and 
picking up a chopper away he went, and I heard him 
cursing in iiis native tongue as he stumbled to the com- 
panion-ladder through the darkness in the cabin. 

His rapacity was beyond credence. There was an im- 
mense treasure in the hold, yet he could not leave the 
pockets of the two poor wretches on deck alone. I did 
not envy him his task ; the frozen figures would bear a 
deal of hammering, and besides he had to work in the 
cold. Ah, thought I, with a groan, I should have left him 
to make one of them ! 

I had finished my dinner -by the time he arrived. He 
produced the watch I had taken from and returned to the 
mate’s pocket when I had searched him for a tinder-box ; 
also a gold snuffbox set with diamonds and a few Spanish 
pieces in gold. On seeing these things I remembered that 
I had found some rings and money in Tassard’s pockets 
while overhauling him for means to obtain fire; but I held 
my peace. 

• “ Should not we have been imbeciles to sacrifice these 
beauties?” he cried, viewing the watch and snuffbox with 
a rapturous grin. 

“They were hard to come at, I expect?” 

“No,” he answered, pocketing them and turning to a 
piece of beef in the oven. “ I knocked away the ice, and 
after a little wrenching got at the pockets. But poor 
Trentanove ! d’ye know, his nose came away with the mask 
of ice ! He is no longer lovely to the sight !” He broke 
into a guffaw, then stuffed his mouth full, and talked in 
the intervals of chewing. “There was nothing worth tak- 
ing on Barros. They are both overboard.” 

“ Overboard ! ” I cried. 


144 


rilE FROZEN P/RATE. 


“Why, yes,” said he. “They are no good on deck. I 
stood them against the rail, then tipped them over.” 

This was an illustration of his strength I did not much 
relish. 

“ I doubt if I could have lifted Barros,” said I. 

“Not you!” he exclaimed, running his eye over me. 
“A dead Dutchman would have the weight of a fairy 
alongside Barros.” 

“Well, Mr. Tassard,” said I, “since you are so strong 
you will be very useful to our scheme! There is much to 
be done.” 

“ Give me a sketch of your plans that I may understand 
you,” he exclaimed, continuing to eat very heartily. 

“First of all,” said I, “we shall have to break the 
powder-barrels out of the magazine and hoist them on 
deck. There are tackles, I suppose?” 

“You should be able to find what you want among the 
boatswain’s stores in the run,” he replied. 

“There are some splits wide enough to receive a whole 
barrel of powder,” said I. “ I counted four such yawns, all 
happily lying in a line athwart the ice past the bows. I 
propose to sink these barrels twenty feet deep, where they 
must hang from a piece of spar across the aperture.” 

He nodded. 

“ Have you any slow-matches aboard ?” 

“Plenty among the gunner’s stores,” he replied. 

“ There are but you and me,” said I ; “these operations 
will take time. We must mind not to be blown up by one 
barrel while we are suspending another. We shall have 
to lower the barrels with their matches on fire, and they 
must be, timed to burn an hour.” 

“ Ay, certainly — at least an hour,” he exclaimed. “Two 
hours would be better.” 

“Well, that must depend upon the number of parcels 
of matches we meet with. There will be a good many 
mines to spring, and one must not explode before another. 
'Tis the united force of the several blasts which we must 
reckon on. The contents of at least four more barrels of 
powder we must distribute among the other chinks and 
splits, in such parcels as they will be able to receive.” 

“And then?” 

“And then,” said I, “we must await the explosion, and 
trust to the mercy of Heaven to help us.” 

He made a hideous face, as if this was a sort of talk 
to nauseate him, and said, “ Do you propose that we 


THE FROZEN PIRAI'E. 


145 

should remain on board or watch the effects from a dis- 
tance ? ” 

“ Why, remain on board, of course," I answered. “Sup- 
pose the mines liberated the ice on which the schooner 
lies and it floated away, what should we, watching at a 
distance, do ? ” 

“ True," cried he, “ but it is cursed perilous. The explo- 
sion might blow the ship up." 

“No, it will not do that. We shall be bad engineers 
if we bring such a thing about. The danger will be — 
providing the schooner is released — in her capsizing, as 
I have before pointed out." 

“Enough!" cried he, charging his pannikin for the 
third time. “We must chance her capsizing." 

“ If I had a crew at my back," said I, “ I would carry 
an anchor and cable to the shoulder of the cliff, at the end 
of the slope, to hold the ship if she swam. I would also 
put a quantity of provisions on the ice, along with mate- 
rials for making us shelter, and the whole of the stock of 
coal, so that we could go on supporting life here if the 
schooner capsized." 

“Then," said he, “you would remain ashore during the 
explosion?" 

“ Most certainly. But as all these preparations would 
mean a degree of labor impracticable by us two men, I 
am for the bold venture— prepare and fire the mines, re- 
turn to the ship, and leave the rest to Providence." 

He made another ugly face, and indulged himself in a 
piece of profanity that was inexpressibly disgusting and 
mean in the mouth of a man who was used to cross him- 
self when alarmed and swear by the saints. But perhaps 
he knew, even better than I, how little he had to expect 
from Providence. He filled his pipe, exclaiming that 
when he had smoked it out we should fall to work. 

Now that I had settled a plan, I was eager to put it 
into practice — hot and wild, indeed, with the impatience 
and hope of the cast-away animated with the dream of re- 
covering his liberty and preserving his life ; and I was the 
more anxious to set about the business at once, on ac- 
count of the weather being fair and still ; for if it came on 
to blow a stormy wind again we should be forced, as be- 
fore, under hatches. But I had to wait for the French- 
man to empty his pipe. He was so complete a sensualist 
that I believe nothing short of terror could have forced 
him to shorten the period of a pleasure by a second of 


lO 


146 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


time. He went on puffing so deliberately, with such leh 
surely enjoyment of the "flavor of the smoke, that I ex- 
pected to see him fall asleep ; and my patience becoming 
exhausted I jumped up, but by this time his bowl held 
nothing but black ashes. 

Now," cried he, “ to work." 

And lie rose with a prodigious yawn and seized the lan- 
tern. Our first business was to hunt among the boat- 
swain’s stores in the run for tackles to hoist the powder- 
barrels up with. There was a good collection, as might 
have been expected in a pirate, whose commerce lay in 
slinging goods from other ships’ holds into her own ; but 
the ropes were frozen as hard as iron, to remedy which we 
carried an armful to the cook-house, and left the tackles 
to lie and soften. We also conveyed to the cook-house a 
quantity of ratline stuff — a thin rope used for the making 
of steps in the shroud ladders ; this being a line that would 
exactly serve to suspend the smaller parcels of powder in 
the splits. Before touching the powder-barrels we put a 
lighted candle into the bull’s-eye lamp over the door, and 
removed the lantern to a safe distance. Tassard was 
perfectly well acquainted with the contents of this store- 
room, ^Ind on my asking for the matches put his hand on 
one of several bags of them. They varied in length, some 
being six inches and some making a big coil. There was 
nothing for it but to sample and test them, and this I told 
Tassard could be done that evening. The main-hatch was 
just forward of the gun-room bulkhead ; we seized a hand- 
spike apiece and went to work to pry the cover open. It 
was desperate tough labor — as bad as trying to open an 
oyster with a soft blade. The Frenchman broke out into 
many strange old-fashioned oaths in his own tongue, im- 
agining the hatch to be frozen ; but though I don’t doubt 
the frost had something, to do with it, ks obstinacy was 
mainly owing to time, that had soldered it, so to speak, 
with the stubbornness that eight-and-forty years will com- 
municate to a fixture which ice has cherished and kept 
sound. 

We got the hatch open at last — be pleased to know that 
I am speaking of the hatch in the lower deck, for there 
was another immediately over it on the upper or main- 
deck — and returning to the powder-room, rolled the bar- 
rels forward ready for slinging and hoisting away when we 
should have rigged a tackle aloft. We had not done much, 
but what we had done had eaten far into the afternoon. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


147 


“ I am tired and hungry and thirsty,” said the French- 
man. “ Let us knock off. We have made good progress. 
No use opening the mam-deck hatch to-night ; the vessel 
is cold enough when hermetically corked.” 

“ Very well,” said I, bringing my watch to the lantern 
and observing the time to be sundown ; so, carefully ex- 
tinguishing the candle in the bull’s-eye lamp, we took 
each of us a bag of matches and went to the cook-room. 

There was neither tea nor coffee in the ship. I so pined 
for these soothing drinks that I would have given all the 
wine in the vessel for a few pounds of either one of them 
— a senseless, ungracious yearning, indeed, in the face of 
tlie plenty that was aboard ! But it was the plenty, per- 
haps, that provoked it. There was chocolate, which the 
Frenchman potted and drank with hearty enjoyment; he 
also devoured handfuls of sticcades, which he would wash 
down with wine. These things made me sick, and for 
drink I was forced upon the spirits and wine, the latter of 
which was so generous that it promised to combine with 
the enforced laziness of my life under hatches to make 
me fat ; so that 1 am of opinion, had we waited for the ice 
to release us, I should have become so corpulent as to 
prove a burden to myself. 

I mention this here that you may find an excuse in it for 
the only act of folly in the way of drinking that I can 
lay to my account while I was in this pirate ; for I must 
tell you that, on returning to the furnace, we, to refresh 
us after our labor, made a bowl of punch, of which I drank 
so plentifully that I began to feel myself very merry. I 
forgot all about the matches and my resolution to test 
them that night. The Frenchman, enjoying my condition, 
continued to pledge me till his little eyes danced in his 
head. Luckily for me, being at bottom of a very jolly dis- 
position, drink never served me worse than to develop that 
quality in me. No man could ever say that 1 was quarrel- 
some in my cups. My progress was marked by stupid 
smiles, terminating in unmeaning laughter. The French- 

^ 00 

man sang a ballad about lov^e and Picardy, and the like, 
and I gave him “ Hearts of Oak,” the sentiments of which 
song kept him shrugging his shoulders and drunkenly 
looking contempt. 

We continued singing alternately for some time, until he 
fell to setting up his throat when I was at work, and this 
confused and stopped me. He then favored me with what 
he called the “ Pirate’s Dance ” — a very wild, grotesque 


148 


THE FROZEN FIR ATE, 


movement, with no elegance whatever to be hurt by his 
being in liquor ; and I think I see him now, whipping off 
his coat, and sprawling and flapping about in high boots 
and a red waistcoat, flourishing his arms, snapping his 
fingers, and now and again bursting into a stave to keep 
step to. When he was done I took the floor with the horn- 
pipe, whistling the air, and double-shuffling, toe-and-heel- 
ing, and quivering from one leg to another very briskly. 
He lay back against the bulkhead grasping a can half full 
of punch, roaring loudly at my antics ; and when I sank 
down, breathless, would have had me go on, hiccoughing 
that though he had known scores of English sailors, he had 
never seen that dance better performed. 

By this time I was extremely excited and extraordinarily 
merry, and losing hold of my judgment began to indulge 
in sundry pleasantries concerning his nation and country- 
men — asking, with many explosions of laughter, how it 
was that they continued at the trouble of building ships 
for us to use against them, and if he did not think the 
“flower de louse” a neater symbol for people who put 
snuff into their soup and restricted their ablutions to their 
faces than the tricolor, being too muddled to consider that 
he was ignorant of that flag ; and in short I was so offen- 
sive, in spite of my ridiculous merriment, that his savage 
nature broke out. He assailed the English with every in- 
jurious term his drunken condition suffered him to recol- 
lect ; and starting up, with bis little eyes wildly rolling, 
he clapped his hand to his side, as if feeling for a sword, 
and calling me by a very ugly French word, bade me come 
on and he would show me the difference between a French- 
man and a beast of an Englishman. 

I laughed at him with all my might, which so enraged 
him that, swaying to the right and left, he advanced as if 
to fall upon me. I started to my feet, and tumbled over 
the bench I had jumped from and lay sprawling; and the 
bench oversetting close to him, he kicked against it and 
fell too, fetching the deck a very hard blow. He groaned 
heavily, and muttered that he was killed. I tried to rise, 
but my legs gave way, and then the fumes of the punch 
overpowered me, for I recollect no more. 

When I awoke it was pitch-dark. My hands, legs, and 
feet seemed formed of ice, my head of burning brass. I 
thought 1 was in my cot, and felt with my hands till I 
touched Tassard’s bald head, which so terrified me that I 
uttered a loud cry and sprang erect. Then recollection 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


149 


returned, and I heartily cursed myself for my folly and 
wickedness. “ Good God ! " thought I, “ that I should be 
so mad as to drown my senses when never was any wrotch 
in such need of all his reason as I ! ” 

The boatswain’s tinder-box was in my pocket ; I groped, 
found a candle, and lighted it. It was twenty minutes 
after three in the morning. Tassard lay on his back, snor- 
ing hideously, his legs overhanging the capsized bench. 
I pulled and hauled at him ; but he was too drunk to 
awake, and that he might not freeze to death I fetched a 
pile of clothes out of his cabin and covered him up, and 
put his head on a coat. 

My head ached horribly, but not worse than my heart. 
When I considered how our orgy might have ended 
in bloodshed and murder, how I had insulted God’s 
providence by drinking and laughing and roaring out 
songs and dancing at a time when I most needed His pro- 
tection, with Death standing close beside me, as I may 
say, I could have beaten my head against the deck in the 
anguish of my contrition and shame. My passion of sor- 
row was so extravagant, indeed, that I remember looking 
at the Frenchman as if he was the devil incarnate, who 
had put himself in my way to thaw and recover, that he 
might tempt me on to the loss of my soul. Fortunately 
these fancies did not last. I was parched with thirst, but 
the water was ice, and there was no fire to melt it with ; 
so I broke off some chips and sucked them, and held a 
lump to my forehead. I went to my cabin and got into 
my hammock, but my head was so hot and ached so furi- 
ously, and I was so vexed with myself besides, that I could 
not sleep. The schooner was deathly still ; there was not 
apparently the faintest murmur of air to awaken an echo 
in her ; nothing spoke but the near and distant cracking 
of the ice. It was miserable work lying in the cabin sleep- 
less and reproaching myself, and as my burning head 
robbed the cold of its formidableness I resolved to go on 
deck and take a brisk turn or two. 

The night was wonderfully fine, the velvet dusk so 
crowded with stars that in parts it resembled great spaces 
of cloth of silver hovering. I turned my eyes northward 
to the stars low down there, and thought of England and 
the home where I was brought up until the tears gathered, 
and with them went something of the dreadful burning 
aching out of my head. Those distant, silent, shining 
bodies amazingly intensified the sense of my loneliness 


50 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


and remoteness, and yonder Southern Cross and the lumin- 
ous dust of the Magellanic clouds seemed not farther off 
than my native country. It is not in language to express 
the savage, naked beauty, the wild mystery of the white, 
still scene of ice, shining back to tlie stars witli a light that 
owed nothing to their glory ; nor convey how the whole 
was heightened to every sense by the element of fear put 
into the picture by the sounds of the splitting ice, and tiie 
softened, regular roaring of the breakers along the coast. 

I started with fresh shame and horror when I contrasted 
this ghastly calmness of pale ice and the. brightness of the 
holy stars looking down upon it with our swinish revelry 
in the cabin, and I thought with loathing of the drunken 
ribaldry of the pirate and my own tipsy songs piercing 
the ear of the mighty spirit of this solitude. The exercise 
improved my spirits ; I stepped the length of the little 
raised deck briskly, my thoughts very busy. On a sudden 
the ice split on the starboard hand with a noise louder 
than the explosion of a twenty-four pounder. The schooner 
swayed to a level keel with so sharp a rise that I lost my 
balance and staggered. I recovered myself, trembling 
and greatly agitated by the noise and the movement com- 
ing together without the least hint having been given me, 
and grasping a backstay waited, not knowing what was to 
happen next. Unless it be the heave of an earthquake, I 
can imagine no motion capable of giving one such a 
swooning, nauseating, terrifying sensation as the rending 
of ice under a fixed ship. In a few moments there were 
several sharp cracks, all on the starboard side, like a snap- 
ping of musketry, and I felt the schooner very faintly 
heave ; but this might have been a deception of the senses, 
for though I set a star against the mast-head and watched 
it, there was no movement. I looked over the side and 
observed that the split I had noticed on the face of the 
cliff had by this new rupture been extended transversely 
right across the schooner’s starboard bow, the thither side 
being several feet higher than on this. It was plain that 
the bed on which the vessel rested had dropped so as to 
bring her upright, and I was convinced by this circum- 
stance alone that if I used good judgment in disposing of 
the powder the weight of the mass would complete its own 
dislocation. 

I stepped a little way forward to obtain a clearer sight 
of the splits about the schooner, and on putting my head 
over I was inexpressibly dismayed and confounded by the 


THE FROZEH PIRATE. 


151 

apparition of a man with his arms stretched out before 
him, his face upturned, and his posture that of starting 
back as though terrified at beholding me. I had met with 
several frights while I had been on this island, but none 
worse than this — none that so completely paralyzed me as 
to very nearly deprive me of the power of breathing. I 
stared at him, and he seemed to stare at me, and I know 
not which of the two was the more motionless. The 
whiteness made a light of its own, and he was perfectly 
plain. I blinked and puffed, conceiving it might be some 
illusion of the wine I had drunk, and finding him still 
there, and acting as though he. warded me off in terror, as 
if my showing myself unawares had led him to think me 
the devil — I say, finding him perfectly real, I was seized 
with an agony of fear, and should have rushed to my 
cabin had my legs been equal to the task of transporting 
me there. Then^ thought I, idiot that you are, what think 
you, you fool, is it but the body of Trentanove? Sure 
enough it was, and putting my head a little further over 
the rail I saw tiie figure of the Portuguese lying close 
under the bends. No doubt it was the movement of the 
ice that had shot the Italian into the life-like posture, it 
being incredible he should have fallen so on being tumbled 
overboard by the Frenchman. But there he was, resting 
against a lump of ice, looking as living in his frozen post- 
ure as ever he had showed in the cabin. 

The shock did my head good ; I went below and got 
into my cot, and after tossing for half an hour or so fell 
asleep. I awoke at eight and went to the cook-house, 
where I found Tassard preparing the breakfast and a great 
fire burning. I hardly knew what reception he would 
give me, and was therefore not a little agreeably surprised 
by his thanking me for covering him up. 

“You have a stronger head than mine,” said he; “the 
punch used you well. You made me laugh, though. You 
were very diverting.” 

“Ay, much too diverting to please myself,” said I ; and 
I sounded him cautiously to remark what his memory 
carried of my insults, but found that he recollected noth- 
ing more than that I danced with vigor and sang well. 

I said nothing about my contrition, my going on deck, 
and the like, contenting myself with asking if he had 
heard the explosion in the night. 

“ No,” cried he, staring and looking eagerly. 

“Well, then,” said I, “there has happened a mighty 


52 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


crack in the ice, and I do soberly believe that, with the 
blessing of God, we shall be able by blasts of powder to 
free the block on which the schooner rests.” 

“Good,” cried he ; “come, let us hurry with this meal. 
How is the weather?” 

“Quiet, I believe. I have not been on deck since the 
explosion aroused me, early this morning.” 

While we ate he said, “ Suppose we get the schooner 
afloat, what do you propose ?” 

“ VVhy,” I answered, “if she prove tight and seaworthy, 
what but carry her home ? ” 

“What! you and I alone?” 

“No,” said I, “ certainly not ; we must make shift to sail 
her to the nearest port, and ship a crew.” 

He looked at me attentively and said, “ What do you 
mean by home ? ” 

“ England,” said I. 

He shrugged his shoulders, and exclaimed in French, 
“ ’Tis natural then proceeding in English, “Pray,” said 
he, showing his fangs, “do not you know that tlie Boca del 
Dragon is a pirate ? Do you want to be hanged, that you 
propose to carry her to a port to ship men ?” 

“ I have no fear of that,” said I ; “after all these years 
she will be as clean forgotten as if she had never had 
existence.” 

“ Look ye here, Mr. Rodney,” cried he, in a passion, 
“let’s have no more of this snivelling nonsense about 
years Ye may be as mad as you please on that point, but 
it sha’n’t hang me. It needs more than a few months to 
make men forget a craft that has carried on such traffic as 
our hold represents. You’ll not find me venturing myself 
nor the schooner into any of your ports for men. No, no, 
my friend. I am in no stupor now, you know ; and I’ve 
slept the punch off also, d’ye see ? What ! betray our 
treasure, and be hanged for our generosity ? ” 

He made me an ironical bow, grinning with w'rath. 

“ Let’s get the schooner afloat first,” said I. 

“Ay, that’s all very well,” he cried; “but better stop 
here than dangle in chain^. No, my friend ; our plan 
must be a very different one from your proposal. I sup- 
pose you want your share of the booty ? ” said he, snap- 
ping his fingers. 

“ I deserve it,” said I, smiling, that I might soften his 
passion. 

“And yet you would convey the most noted pirate of 


THE FROZEN F JR ATE. 


153 


the age, with plunder in her to the value of thousands of 
doubloons, to a port in which we should doubtless find 
ships of war, a garrison, magistrates, governors, prisons, 
and the whole of the machinery it is our business to give 
our stern to ! Ma foi^ Mr. Rodney ! surely you are out in 
something more than your reckoning of time ? ” 

“ What do you propose ? ” said I. 

“ Ha ! ” he exclaimed, while his little eyes twinkled with 
cunning, “ now you speak sensibly. What do I propose ? 
This, my friend. We must navigate the schooner to an 
island and bury the treasure ; then head for the shipping 
highways, and obtain help from any friendly merchantmen 
vve may fall in with. Home with us means the Tortugas. 
There we shall find the company we need to recover for 
us what we shall have hidden. We shall come by our own 
then. But to sail with this treasure on board — without a 
crew to defend the vessel— by this hand ! the first cruiser 
that sighted us would make a clean sweep, and then ho for 
the hangman, Mr. Rodney ! ” 

How much I relished this scheme you will imagine ; but 
to reason with him would have been mere madness. I 
knitted my brows and seemed to reflect, and then said, 
“Well, there is a great deal of plain good sense in what 
you say. I certainly see the wisdom of your advice in 
recommending that we should bury the treasure. Nor 
must we leave anything on board to convict the ship of 
her true character.” 

His greedy eyes sparkled with self-complacency. He 
tapped his forehead and cried, “ Trust to this ! There is 
mind behind this surface. Your plan for releasing the 
schooner is great ; mine for preserving the treasure is 
great too. You are the .sailor, 1 the strategist ; by com- 
bining our genius we shall oppose an invulnerable front to 
adversity, and must end our days as princes. Your hand, 
Paul!” 

I laughed and gave him my hand, which he squeezed 
with many contortions of face and figure ; but though I 
laughed, I don’t know that I ever so much disliked and dis- 
trusted and feared the old leering rogue as at that mo- 
ment. ^ 

“Come!” I cried, jumping up, “let’s get about our 
work.” And with that I pulled open a bag of matches 
and fell to testing them. They burned well. The fire ate 
into them as smoothly at if they had been prepared the 
day before. They were all of one thickness. 1 cut them 


154 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


to equal lengths, and fired them, and waited watch in hand ; 
one was burned out two minutes before the other, and 
each length took about ten minutes to consume. This was 
good enough to base my calculations upon. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

WE EXPLODE THE MINES. 

I don’t design to weary you with a close account of our 
proceedings. How we opened the main-deck hatch, rigged 
up tackles, clapping purchases on to the falls, as the cap- 
stan was hard frozen and immovable ; how we hoisted the 
powder-barrels on deck, and then by tackles on the fore- 
yard lowered them over the side ; how we filled 'a number 
of bags which we found in the forecastle with powder ; 
how we measured the cracks in the ice, and sawed a cou- 
ple of spare studding-sail booms into lengths to serve as 
beams whereby to poise the barrels and bags — -would 
make but sailor’s talk, half of which would be unintelligible 
and the rest wearisome. 

The Frenchman worked hard, and we snatched only half 
an hour for our dinner. The split that had happened in 
the ice during the night showed by daylight as a gulf be- 
twixt eight and ten feet wide at the sea-ward end, thinning 
to a width of three feet, never less, to where it ended, ahead 
of the ship, in a hundred cracks in the ice that showed as 
if a thunderbolt had fallen just there. I looked into this 
rent, but it was as black as a well past a certain depth, and 
there was no gleam of water. When we went over the 
side to roll our first barrel of powder to the spot where we 
meant to lower it, the Frenchman marched up to the figure 
of Trentanove, and with no more reverence than a boy 
would show in throwing a stone at a jackass, tumbled him 
into the chasm. He then stepped up to the body of the 
Portuguese boatswain, dragged him to the same fissure, 
and rolled him into it. 

“There ! ’’ cried he ; “ now they are properly buried.” 

And with this he went coolly on with his work. 

I said nothing, but was secretly heartily disgusted with 
this brutal disposal of his miserable shipmates’ remains. 
However, it was his doing, not mine ; and I confess the 
removal of those silent witnesses was a very great relief 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


155 

to me, albeit when I considered how Tassard had been 
awakened, and how both the mate and the boatswain might 
have been brought to by treatment, I felt as though after 
a manner the ^Frenchman had committed a murder by 
burying them so. 

It blew a small breeze all day from the southwest, the 
weather keeping line. It was nine o’clock in the morning 
when we started on our labor, and the sun had been sunk 
a few minutes by the time we had rigged the last whip for 
the lowering and poising of the powder. This left us noth- 
ing to do in the morning but light the matches, lower the 
powder into position, and then withdraw to the schooner 
and await the issue. Our arrangements comprised, first, 
four barrels of powder in deep yawns ahead of the vessel, 
directly athwart the line of her head ; second, two barrels, 
a wide space between them, in the great chasm on the 
starboard side ; third, about fifty very heavy charges in bags 
and the like for the further rupturing of many splits and 
crevices on the larboard bow of the ship, where the ice was 
most compact. What should follow the mighty blast no 
mortal being could have foretold. I had no fear of the 
charges injuring the vessel — that is to say, I did not fear 
that the actual explosions would damage her ; but as the 
effect of the bursting of such a mass of powder as we de- 
signed to explode upon so brittle a substance as ice was 
not calculable, it was quite likely that the vast discharge, 
instead of loosening and freeing the bed of ice, might 
rend it into blocks, and leave the schooner still stranded 
and lying in some wild posture amid the ruins. 

But the powder was our only trump ; we had but to 
play it and leave the rest to fortune. 

We got our supper and sat smoking and discussing our 
situation and chances. Tassard was tired, and this and 
our contemplation of the probabilities of the morrow so- 
bered his mind, and he talked with a certain gravity. He 
drank sparely and forebore the hideous recollections or 
inventions he was used to bestow on me, and indeed could 
find nothing to talk about but the explosion and what it 
was to do for us. I was very glad he did not again refer 
to his project to bury the treasure and carry the schooner 
to the Tortugas. The subject fired his blood, and it was 
such nonsense that the mere naming of it was nauseous 
to me. Eight-and-forty years had passed since his ship 
fell in with this ice, and not tenfold the treasure in the 
hold might have purchased for him the sight of so much 


56 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


as a single bone of the youngest of those associates whom 
he idly dreamed of seeking and shipping and sailing in 
command of. Yet, imbecile as was his scheme, having 
regard to the half-century that had elapsed, I clearly wit- 
nessed the menace to me that it implied. His views were 
to be read as plainly as if he had delivered them. First 
and foremost, he meant that I should help him to sail the 
schooner to an island and bury the plate and money — 
which done, he would take the first opportunity to mur- 
der me. His chance of meeting with a ship that would 
lend him assistance to navigate the schooner would be as 
good if he were alone in her as if I were on board too. 
There would be nothing, then, in this consideration to 
hinder him from cutting my throat after we had buried 
the treasure and were got north. Two motives would im- 
peratively urge him to make away with me : first, that I 
should not be able to serve as a witness to his being a 
pirate ; and, next, that he alone should possess the secret 
of the treasure. 

He little knew what was passing in my mind as he sur- 
veyed me through the curls of smoke spouting up from 
his death’s head pipe. I talked easily and confidentially ; 
but I saw in his gaze the eyes of my murderer, and was 
so sure of his intentions that, had I shot him in self-de- 
fence as he sat there, I am Certain my conscience w'ould 
have acquitted me of his blOod. 

I passed two most uneasy hours in my cot before clos- 
ing my eyes. I could think of nothing but how to secure 
myself against the Frenchman’s treachery. You would 
suppose that my mind must have been engrossed with 
considerations of the several possibilities of the morrow ; 
but that was not so* My reflections ran wholly to the 
bald-headed, evil-eyed pirate whom in an evil hour I had 
thawed into being, and whd Was like to discharge the 
debt of his own life by taking mine. The truth is, I had 
been too hard at work all day— too full of the business of 
planning, cutting, testing, and contriving — to find leisure 
to dwell upon what he had said at breakfast ; and now 
that 1 lay alone in darkness, it was the only subject I 
could settle my thoughts to. 

However, next morning I found myself less gloomy, 
thanks to several hours of solid sleep. I thought. What 
is the good of anticipating ? Suppose the schooner is 
crushed by the ice, or becomes jammed in consequence of 
the explosion ? Until we are under way — nay, until the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


IS7 

treasure is buried — I have nothing to fear, for the rogue 
cannot do without me. And, reassuring myself in this 
fashion, I went to the cook-room and lighted the fire ; my 
companion presently arrived, and we sat down to our 
morning meal. 

“ I dreamed last night,” said he, “ that the devil sat on 
my breast, and told me that we should break clear of the 
ice and come off safe with the treasure ; there is loyalty in 
the fiend. He seldom betrays his friend.” 

“You have a better opinion of him than I have,” said 
I ; “ and I do not know that you have much claim upon 
his loyalty either, seeing that you will cross yourself and 
call upon the Madonna and saints when the occasion 
arises.” 

“Pooh, mere habit!” cried he, sarcastically. “I have 
seen Barros praying to a little wooden saint in a gale of 
wind, and then knock its head off and throw it overboard 
because the storm increased.” And here he fell to talking 
very impiously, professing such an outrageous contempt 
for every form of religion, and affirming so ardent a belief 
in the good-will of Satan and the like, that I quitted my 
bench at last in a passion, and told him that he must be 
the devil himself to talk so, and that for my part his senti- 
ments awoke in me nothing but the utmost scorn, loath- 
ing, and horror of him. 

His face fell, and he looked at me with the eyes of one 
who takes measure of another and does not feel sure. 

“Tut!” cried he, with feigned peevishness; “what are 
my sentiments to you, or yours to me ? You may be a 
Quaker, for all I care. Come, fill your pannikin and let 
us drink a health to our own souls ! ” 

But though he said this grinning, he shot a very savage 
look of malice at me, and when he put his pannikin down 
his face was very clouded and sulky. 

We finished our meal in silence, and then I rose, saying. 

Let us now see what the gunpowder is going to do for 
us.” 

My rising and saying this worked a change in him. He 
exclaimed, briskly, “Ay, now for the great experiment,” 
and made for the companion-steps with an air of bustle. 

The wind as before was in the southwest, blowing with- 
out much weight ; but the sky was overcast with great 
masses of white clouds with a tint of rainbows in their 
shoulders and skirts, amid which the sky showed a clear 
liquid blue. Those clouds seemed to promise wind and 


158 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 

perhaps snow anon ; but there was nothing to hinder our 
operations. We got upon the ice and went to work to fix 
matches to the barrels and bags, and to sling them by the 
beams we had contrived, ready for lowering when the 
matches were fired, and this occupied us the best part of 
two hours. When all was ready, I fired the first match, 
and we lowered the barrel smartly to the scope of line we 
had settled upon ; so with the others. You may reckon 
we worked with all imaginable wariness, for the stuff we 
handled was mighty deadly ; and if a barrel should fall 
and burst with the match alight, we might be blown in an 
instant into rags, it being impossible to tell how deep the 
rents went. 

The bags being lighter, there was less to fear ; and pres- 
ently all the barrels and bags, with the matches burning, 
were poised in the places and hanging at the depth we 
had fixed upon, and we then returned to the schooner — 
the Frenchman breaking into a run and tumbling over 
the rail, in his alarm, with the dexterity of a monkey. 

Each match was supposed to burn an hour, so that when 
the several explosions happened they might all occur as 
nearly as possible at once, and we had therefore a long 
time to wait. The margin may look unreasonable in the 
face of our despatch ; but you will not think it unnecessary 
if you consider that our machinery might not have worked 
very smooth, and that meanwhile all that was lowered was 
in the way of exploding. So interminable a period as 
now followed I do believe never entered before into the 
experiences of a man. The cold was intense, and we had 
to move about ; but also were we repeatedly coming to a 
halt to look at our watches and cast our eyes over the ice. 
It was like standing under a gallows with the noose around 
the neck, waiting for the cart to move off. My own sus- 
pense became torture ; but I commanded my face. The 
Frenchman, on the other hand, could not control the tor- 
ments of his expectation and fear. 

“ Holy Virgin ! ” he would cry, “ suppose we are blown 
up too ! suppose we are ingulfed in the ice ! suppose it 
should be vomited up in vast blocks, which in falling upon 
us must crush us to pulp and smash the decks in ! ” 

At one moment he would call himself an idiot for not 
remaining on the rocks at a distance and watching the ex- 
plosion, and even make as if to jump off the vessel, then 
immediately recoil from the idea of setting his foot upon 
a floor that before he could take ten strides might split 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


159 


into chasms, with hideous uproar, under him. At another 
moment he would run to the companion and descend out 
of my sight, but reappear after a minute or two, wildly 
shaking his head, and swearing that if waiting was insup- 
portable in the daylight, it was ten thousand times worse 
in the gloom and solitude of the interior. 

1 was too nervous and expectant myself to be affected 
by his behavior ; but his dread of the explosion upheav- 
ing lumps of ice was sensible enough to determine me to 
post myself under the cover of the hatch and there await 
the blast — for it was a stout cover, and would certainly 
screen me from the lighter flying pieces. 

It was three or four minutes past the hour, and I was 
looking breathlessly at my watch, when the first of 
the explosions took place. Before the ear could well 
receive the shock of the blast the whole of the barrels 
exploded, along with some twelve or fourteen parcels. 
Tassard, who stood beside me, fell on his face, and I be- 
lieved he had been killed. It was so hellish a thunder 
that I suppose the blowing up of a first-rate could not 
make a more frightful roar of noise. A kind of twilight 
was caused by the rise of the volumes of white smoke out 
of the ice. The schooner shook with such a convulsion 
that I was persuaded she had been split. Vast show- 
ers of splinters of ice fell as if from the sky, and rained 
like arrows through the smoke ; but if there were any 
great blocks uphove they did not touch the ship. Mean- 
while the other parcels were exploding in their places, 
sometimes two and three at a time, sending a sort of sick- 
ening spasm and throe through the fabric of the vessel, 
and you heard the most extraordinary grinding noises ris- 
ing out of the ice all about, as though the mighty rupture 
of the powder crackled through leagues of the island. I 
durst not look forth till all the powder had burst lest I 
should be struck by some flying piece of ice ; but unless 
the schooner was injured below she was as sound as be- 
fore, and in exactly the same posture, as if afloat in har- 
bor, only that of. course her stern lay low with the slope 
of her bed. 

I called to Tassard, and he lifted his head. 

“ Are you hurt ?” said I. 

“ No, no,” he answered. “Tis a Spaniard’s trick to fling 
down to a broadside. Body of St. Joseph, what a furious 
explosion ! ” and so saying he crawled into the companion 
and squatted beside me. “ What has it done for us ? ” 


i6o 


• THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


“ I don’t know yet,” said I ; “ but I believe the schooner 
is uninjured. That was a powerful shock ! ” I cried, as a 
half-dozen of bags blew up together in the crevices deep 
down. 

The thunder and tumult of the rending ice, accompanied 
by the heavy explosions of the gunpowder, so dulled the 
hearing that it was difficult to speak. That the mines had 
accomplished our end was not yet to be known ; but there 
could not be the least doubt that they had not only occa- 
sioned tremendous ruptures low down in the ice, but that 
the volcanic influence was extending far beyond its first 
effects by making one split produce another, one weak 
part give way and create other weaknesses, and so on, all 
round about us and under our keel, as was clearly to be 
gathered by the shivering and spasms of the schooner, 
and by the growls, roars, blasts, and huddle of terrifying 
sounds which arose from the frozen floor. 

It was twenty minutes after the hour at which the mines 
had been framed to explode when the last parcel burst ; but 
we waited another quarter of an hour to make sure that it 
was the last, during all which time the growling and roar- 
ing noises deep down continued, as if there was a battle of 
a thousand lions raging in the vaults and hollows under- 
neath.^ The smoke had been settled away by the wind, 
and the prospect was clear. We ran below to see to the 
fire and receive five minutes of heat into our chilled bodies, 
and then returned to view the scene. 

I looked first over the starboard side, and saw the great 
split that had happened in the night torn in places into 
immense yawns and gulfs by the fall of vast masses of 
rock out of its sides, but what most delighted me was the 
hollow sound of washing water. I lifted my hand and 
listened. 

“ ’Tis the swell of the sea flowing into the opening ! ” I 
exclaimed. 

“ That means,” said Tassard, “ that this side of the block 
is dislocated from the main.” 

“Yes,” cried I ; “and if the powder ahead of the bows 
has done its work, the heave of the ocean will do the 
rest.” 

We made our way on to the forecastle over a deep bed of 
splinters of ice, lying like wood-shavings upon the deck ; 
and I took notice as I walked that every glorious crystal 
pendant that had before adorned the yards, rigging, and 
spars had been shaken off. I had expected to see a won- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. l6i 

derful spectacle of havoc in the ice where the barrels of 
gunpowder had been poised ; but saving many scores of 
cracks where none was before, and vast ragged gashes in 
the mouths of the crevices down which the barrels had 
been lowered, the scene was much as heretofore. 

The Frenchman stared, and exclaimed, “What has the 
powder done ? I see only a few cracks.” 

“ What it may have done I don’t know,” I answered ; “but 
depend on it, such heavy charges of powder must have burst 
to some purpose. The dislocation will be below ; and so 
much the better, for ’tis there the ice must come asunder if 
this block is to go free.” 

He gazed about him, and then rapping out a string of 
oaths — English, Italian, and French, for he swore in all 
the languages he spoke, which, he once told me, were five 
— he declared that for his part he considered the powder 
wasted, that we’d have done as well to fling a hand-grenade 
into a fissure ; that a thousand barrels of powder would 
be but as a pop-gun for rending the schooner’s bed from 
the main ; and, in short, with several insulting looks and a 
face black with rage and disappointment, gave me very 
plainly to know that I had not only played the fool my- 
self, but had made a fool of him, and that he was heartily 
sorry he had ever given himself any trouble to contrive 
the cursed mines, or to assist me in a ridiculous project 
that might have resulted in blowing the schooner to pieces 
and ourselves with it. 

I glanced at him with a sneer, but took no further 
notice of his insolence. It was not only that he was so 
contemptible in all respects — a liar, a rogue, a thief, a 
poltroon, hoary in twenty walks of vice — there was some- 
thing so unearthly about a creature that had been as good 
as dead for eight-and-forty years that it was impossible 
anything he could say could affect me as the rancorous 
tongue of another man would. I feared and hated him, 
because I knew that in intent he was already my assassin ; 
but the mere insolences of so incredible a creature could 
not but find me imiperturbable. 

And perhaps in the present instance my own disappoint- 
ment put me into some small posture of sympathy with 
his passion. Had I been asked before the explosions 
happened what I expected, I don’t know that I should 
have found any answer to make ; and yet, though I could 
not have expressed my expectations, which, after all, were 
but hopes, I was bitterly vexed when I looked over the 


i 62 


THE FROZEN FIRA TE. 


bows and found in the scene nothing that appeared an- 
swerable to the uncommon forces we had employed. 
Nevertheless, I felt sure that my remark to the French- 
man was sound. A great show of uphove rocks and frag- 
ments of ice might have satisfied the eye, but the real 
work of the mines was wanted below ; and since the force 
of the mighty explosion must needs expend itself some- 
where, it was absurd to wish to see its effects in a part 
where its volcanic agency would be of little or no use. 

“ There is nothing to be seen by staring ! ” exclaimed 
the Frenchman, presently, speaking very sullenly. “I am 
hungry and freezing, and shall go below ! ” And with 
that he turned his back and made off, growling in his 
throat as he went. 

I got upon the ice and stepped very carefully to the 
starboard side, and looked down the vast split there. The 
sea in consequence of the slope did not come so far, but I 
could hear the wash of the water very plain. It was cer- 
tain that the valley in which we lay was wholly discon- 
nected from the main ice on this side. I passed to the 
larboard quarter, and here, too, were cracks wide and 
deep enough to satisfy me that its hold was weak. It was 
forward of the bows, where the barrels had been exploded, 
that the ice was thickest and had the firmest grasp ; but 
its surface was violently and heavily cracked by the ex- 
plosions, and I thought to myself if the fissures below are 
as numerous, then certainly tlie swell of the sea ought to 
fetch the whole mass away. But I was now half frozen 
myself and pining for warmth. It was after one o’clock. 
The wind was piping freshly, and the great heavy clouds 
in swarms drove stately across the sky. 

“It may blow to-night,” thought I ; “and if the wind 
hangs as it is, just such a sea as may do our business will 
be set running.” And thus musing, I entered the ship and 
went below. 


CHAPTER XXII. ^ 

A CHANGE COMES OVER THE FRENCHMAN. 

Tassard was dogged and scowling. Such was his tem- 
per that, had I been a small or weak man, or a person likely 
to prove submissive, he would have given a loose to his 
foul tongue, and maybe handled me very roughly. But 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


163 


my demeanor was cold and reserved, and not of a kind 
to improve his courage. I levelled a deliberate semi- 
contemptuous gaze at his own fiery stare, and puzzled 
him too, I believe, a good deal by my cool reserve. He 
muttered while we ate, drinking plentifully of wine, and 
garnishing his draughts with oaths and to spare ; and then, 
after falling silent and remaining so for the space of twenty 
minutes, during which I lighted my pipe and sat with my 
feet close to the furnace, listening with eager ears to the 
sounds of the ice and the dull crying of the wind, he ex- 
claimed, sulkily: “Your scheme is a failure. The 
schooner is fixed. What’s to be done now ! ” 

“ I don’t know that my scheme is a failure,” said I. 
“What did you suppose — that the blast would blow the 
ice, with the schooner on it, into the ocean clear of the isl- 
and ? If the ice is so shaken as to enable the swell to de- 
tach it, my scheme will have accomplished all I proposed.” 

“ If ! ” he cried, scornfully and passionately, “ if will not 
deliver us nor save the treasure. I tell you the schooner 
is fixed — as fixed as the damned in everlasting fire. Be it 
so ! ” he cried, clinching his fist. “ But you must meddle 
no more ! The Boca del Dragon is mine — 7mne, d’ye see, 
now that they’re all dead and gone but me ” — smiting his 
bosom — “and if ever she is to float, let nature or the devil 
launch her ; no more explosions, with the risks your fail- 
ure has made her and me run ! ” 

His voice sank ; he looked at me in silence, and then, 
with a wild grin of anger he exclaimed, “What made you 
awake me? I was at “peace — neither cold, hungry, nor 
hopeless ! What demon forced you to bring me to this — 
to bring me back to thisV' 

“ Mr. Tassard,” said I, coldly, “ I don’t ask your pardon 
for my experiment ; I meant well, and to my mind it is no 
failure yet. But for disturbing your repose I do sincerely 
beg your forgiveness, and solemnly promise you, if you 
will return to the state in which I found you, that I will 
not repeat the offence.” 

He eyed me from top to toe in silence, filled and lighted 
his hideous pipe, and smoked with his back turned upon 
me. 

Had there been another warm place in the schooner I 
should have retired to it, and left this surly and scandal- 
ous savage to the enjoyment of his own company. His 
temper rendered me extremely uneasy. The arms-room 
was full of weapons ; he might draw a pistol upon me and 


164 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


shoot me dead before I should have time to clinch my 
hand. Nor did I conceive him to have his right mind. 
His panic terrors and outbursts of rage were such extremes 
of behavior as suggested some sort of organic decay within. 
He had been for eight-and-forty years insensible ; in all 
that tfme the current of life had been frozen in him, not 
dried up and extinguished ; therefore, taking his age to be 
fifty-five when the frost seized him, he would now be one 
hundred and three years old, having subsisted into this 
great span of time in fact, though confronting me with the 
aspect of an elderly man merely. Death ends time, but 
this man never had been dead, or surely it would not have 
been in the power of brandy and chafing and fire to arouse 
him ; and though all the processes of nature had been 
checked in him for near half a century, yet he must have 
been throughout as much alive as a sleeping man, and con- 
sequently when he awoke he arose with the weight of a 
hundred and three years upon his brain, which may suffice 
to account for the preternatural peculiarities of his char- 
acter. 

After sitting a long while sullenly smoking in silence, 
he fetched his mattress and some covers, lay down upon 
it, and fell fast asleep. I admired and envied this display 
of confidence in me, and heartily wished myself as safe in 
his hands as he \yas in mine. The afternoon passed. I 
was on deck a half-dozen times, but never witnessed the 
least alteration in the ice. My spirits .sank very low. 
There was bitter, remorseless defiance in the wliite, fierce, 
rigid stare of the ice, and I could not but believe with the 
Frenchman that all our labor and expenditure of power 
was in vain. There was no more noticeable weight in the 
wind, but the sea was beginning to beat with some strength 
upon the coast, and the schooner sometimes trembled to 
the vibrations of the blows. There was also a continuous 
crackling noise coming up out of the ice, and just as I came 
on deck on my third visit a block of ice, weighing, I dare 
say, a couple of hundred tons, fell from the broken shoulder 
on the starboard quarter, and plunged with a roar like a 
thunder-clap into the chasm that had opened in the night. 

I sat before the furnace, extremely dejected, while the 
Frenchman snored on his mattress. I could no longer 
flatter myself that the explosions had made the impression 
I had expected on the ice, and my mind was utterly at a 
loss. How to deliver myself from this horrible situation 
I could not imagine. As to the treasure, why, if the chests 


THE EROZEH PIRATE, 


165 

had all been filled with gold, they might have gone to the 
bottom there and then for me, so utterly insignificant did 
their value seem as against the pricelessness of liberty and 
the joy of deliverance. Had I been alone I should have 
had a stouter heart, I dare say, for then I should have been 
able to do as I pleased ; but now I was associated with a 
bloody-minded rogue, whose soul was in the treasure, *and 
who was certain to oppose any plan I might propose for 
the construction of a boat or raft out of the material that 
formed the schooner. The sole ray of hope that gleamed 
upon me broke out of the belief that this island was going 
north, and that when we had come to the height of the 
summer in these seas the wasting of the coast or the dis- 
location of the northern mass would release us. 

Yet this was but poor comfort too ; it threatened a ter- 
rible long spell of waiting, with perhaps disappointment 
in the end, and months of enforced association with a 
wretch with whom I should have to live in fear of my 
life. 

When I was getting supper Tassard awoke, quitted his 
mattress, and came to his bench. 

“ Has anything happened while I slept ? ” said he. 

“Nothing,” I answered. 

“The ice shows no signs of giving ? ” 

“ I see none,” said I. 

“Well,” cried he, with a sarcastic sneer, “have you any 
more fine schemes ? ” 

“ Tis your turn now,” I replied. Try your hand. If 

you fail, I promise you I shall not be disappointed.” 

“But you English sailors,” said he, wagging his head 
and regarding me with a great deal of wildness in his eye, 
“speak of yourselves as the finest seamen in the world. 
Justify the maritime reputation of your nation by showing 
me how we are to escape with the schooner from the ice.” 

“ Mr. Tassard,” said I, approaching him and looking him 
full in the face, “ I would advise you to sweeten your tem- 
per and change your tone. I have borne myself very 
moderately toward you, submitted to your insults with 
patience, and have done you some kindness. I am not 
afraid of you. On the contrary, I look upon you as a swag- 
gering bully and a hoary villain. Do you understand me ? 
I am a desperate man in a desperate situation. But if I 
don’t fear death, depend upon it, I don’t fear you j and I 
take God to witness that if you do not use me with the 
civility I have a right to expect I will kill you ! ” 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


1 66 

My temper had given way ; I meant every word I spoke, 
and my air and sincerity rendered my speech very formid- 
able. I approached him by another stride ; he started up, 
as I thought, to seiz6 me, but in reality to recoil, and this 
he did so effectually as to tumble over his bench, and 
down he fell, striking his bald head so hard that he lay for 
several minutes motionless. 

I stoo^ over him till he chose to sit erect, which he 
presently did, rubbing his poll and looking at me with an 
air of mingled bewilderment and fear. 

“This is scurvy usage to give a shipmate in distress,” 
said he. “ ’ Od’s life, man ! I had thought there was some 
sense of humor in you. Your hand, Mr. Rodney — I feel 
dazed.” 

I helped him to rise, and he then sat down in a some- 
what rickety manner, rubbing his eyes. It might have 
been fancy, it might have been the illusion of the furnace- 
light combined with the venerable appearance his long 
hair and naked pate gave him, but methought iri those few 
minutes he had grown to look twenty years older. 

“Never concern yourself about my humor, Mr. Tassard,” 
said I, preserving my determined air and coming close to 
him again. “ How is it to stand between us ? I leaveThe 
choice to you. If you will treat me civilly, you’ll not find 
me wanting in every disposition to render our miserable 
state tolerable ; but if you insult me, use me injuriously, 
and act the pirate over me, who am an honest man, by 
God, Mr. Tassard, I will kill you ! ” 

He stooped av'ay from me, and raised his hand in a pos- 
ture as if to fend me off, and cried, in a whining manner : 
“ I lost my head — this gunpowder business hath been a 
hellish disappointment — look you, Mr. Rodney. Come ! 
We will drink a can to our future amity ! ” 

I answered coldly that I wanted no more wine, and 
bade him beware of me ; that he had gone far enough ; 
that our hideous condition had filled my soul with desper- 
ation and misery, and that I would not have my life on 
this frozen schooner made more abominable than it was 
by his swagger, lies, and insults ; and I added, in a loud 
voice and in a menacing manner, that death had no ter- 
rors for me, and that I would despatch him with as little 
fear as I should meet my doom, whatever shape it took. 

I marched on deck, not a little astounded by the cow- 
ardice of the old rascal, and very well pleased with the 
marked impression my bearing and language had pro- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


167 


duced on him. Not that I supposed for a moment that 
my bold comportment would save me from his knife or 
his pistol when he should think proper to make away with 
me. No. All 1 reckoned upon was cowing him into a 
civiler posture of mind, and checking his aggressions and 
insolence. As to his murdering me, I was very sure he 
would not attempt such an act while we remained impris- 
oned. Loneliness would have more horrors for him than 
for me ; and though my machinery of mines had appar- 
ently failed he was shrewd enough, despite his rage of 
disappointment, to understand that more was to be done 
by two men than by one, and that between us something 
might be attempted which would be impracticable by a 
simple pair of hands, and particularly old hands such as his. 

I stayed but a minute or two on deck. Such was the 
cold that I do not know I had ever felt it more biting and 
bitter. The sound of foaming waters filled the wind, and 
the wind itself was blowing fairly strong, in gusts that 
screamed in the frozen rigging, or in blasts that had the 
deep echo of the thunder-claps of the splitting ice. The 
clouds were numerous and dark with the shadow of the 
night ; and the swiftness of their motion as they sailed up 
out of the southwest quarter was illustrated by the leaping 
of the few bright stars from one dusky edge to another. 

I returned below and sat down. The Frenchman asked 
me no questions. He had his can in the oven and his 
death’s-head in his great hand, and puffed out clouds of 
smoke of the color of his beard, and indeed, in the candle 
and fire light, looked like a figure of old Time, with his 
long nose and bald head. I addressed one or two civil re- 
marks to him, which he answered in a subdued manner, 
discovering no resentment whatever that I could trace in 
ids eyes or in the expression of his countenance ; and be- 
ing wishful to show that I bore no malice, I talked of 
pirates and their usages, and asked him if the Boca del 
Dragon fought under the red or black flag. 

“ Why, the black flag, certainly,” said he ; “ but if we 
met with resistance it was our custom to haul it down and 
hoist the red flag, to let our opponents know we should 
give no quarter.” 

“Where is your flag-locker?” said I. 

“In my berth,” he answered. 

“I should like to see the black flag,” I exclaimed ; “’tis 
the one piece of bunting, I believe, I have never viewed.” 

“ I’ll fetch it,” said he, and taking the lantern went aft 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


1 68 

very quietly, but with a certain stagger in his walk which 
I should have put down to the wine, if it was not that his 
behavior was free from all symptoms of inebriation. The 
change in him surprised me, but not so greatly as you might 
suppose ; indeed, it excited my suspicions rather than my 
wonder. Fear worked in him unquestionably; but what I 
seemed to see best was some malignant design which he 
hoped tQ conceal by an air of conciliation and a quality of 
bonhomie. 

He came back with a flag in his hand, and we spread it 
between us; it was black, with a yellow skull grinning in 
the middle ; over this an hour-glass, and beneath a cross- 
bones. 

“What consternation has this signal caused, and does 
still cause ! ” said I, surveying it, while a hundred fancies of 
the barbarous scenes it had flown over, the miserable cries 
for mercy that had swept up past it to the ear of God, 
crowded into my mind. “ I think, Mr. Tassard,” said I, 
“ that our first step, should we ever find ourselves afloat 
in this ship, must be to commit this and all other flags of 
a like kind on board to the deep. There is evidence in 
this piece of drapery to hang an angel ! ” 

He let fall his ends of the flag, and sat down suddenly. 

“Yes,” he answered, sending a curious rolling glance 
around the cook-room, and at the same time bringing his 
hand to the back of his head, “ this is evidence to dangle 
even an honester man than you, sir. All flags but the en- 
sign we resolve to sail under must go — all flags, and all 
the wearing apparel, and — and — but” — here he muttered 
a curse — “ we are fixed ; there is to be no sailing.” 

He shook his head and covered his eyes. His manner 
was strange, and the stranger for his quietude. 

I said to him, “Are you ill?” 

He looked up sharply, and cried vehemently, “No, no !” 
then stretched his lips in a very ghastly grin, and turned 
to take the can from the oven ; but his hand missed it, and 
he appeared to grope as if he were blind, though he 
looked at the can all the time. Then he caught it and 
brought it to his mouth, but trembled so much that he 
spilled as much as he drank, and after putting the can 
back, sat shaking his beard and stroking the wet of it, me- 
thought, in a very mechanical, lunatic way. 

I thought to myself, is this behavior some stratagem of 
his? What device can such a bearing hide ? If he is act- 
ing, he plays his part well. 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


169 


I rolled the black flag into a bundle and flung it into a 
corner, and resuming my seat and my pipe, continued, more 
for civility’s sake than because of any particular interest I 
took in the subject, to ask him questions about the cus- 
toms and habits of pirates. 

“ I believe,” said I, “ the buccaneers are so resolute in 
having clear ships that they have neither beds nor seats on 
board.” 

“ The English,” he answered, speaking slowly and let- 
ting his pipe droop while he spoke, with his eyes fixed on 
deck, “not the Spanish. ’Tis the custom of most Eng- 
lish pirates to eat and sleep upon the decks for the sake 
of a clear ship, as you say. The Spaniard loves comfort ; 
you may observe his fancy in this ship.” 

“ How is the plunder partitioned ? ” I asked. 

“Everything is put into the common chest, as we call it, 
and brought to the mast and sold by auction — Strange ! ” 
he cried, breaking off and putting his hand to his brow; 
“I find my speech difficult. Do you notice I halt, and 
utter thickly ? ” 

I replied “No.” His voice seemed to be the same as 
hitherto. 

“ Yet I feel ill. Holy Mother of God ! what is this 
feeling coming upon me ? O Jesus, how faint and dark ! ” 

He half rose from his bench, but sat again, trembling 
as if the palsy had seized him, and I noticed his head dot- 
ted with beads of sweat. He had drunk so much wine 
and spirits throughout the day that a dram would have 
been of no use to him. 

I said, “ I expect it will be the blow on the back of 
your head, when you fell just now, that has produced 
this feeling of giddiness. Let me help you to lie down ” 
(for his mattress was on deck ) ; “ the sensation will pass, 
I don’t doubt.” 

If he heard he did not heed me, but fell a-muttering 
and crying to himself. And now I did certainly remark a 
quality in his voice that was new to my ear; it was not, 
as he had said, a labor or thickness of utterance, but a 
dryness and parchedness of old age, with many breaks 
from high to low notes, and a lean noise of dribbling 
threading every word. He sweated and talked and mut- 
tered — but this was from sheer terror ; he did not swoon, 
but sat with a stoop, often pressing his brows and gazing 
about him like one whose senses are all abroad. 

“ Gracious Mother of all angels ! ” he exclaimed, cross- 


170 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


ing himself several times, but with a feeble, most agi- 
tated hand, and speaking in French and English, and some- 
times interjecting an invocation in Italian or Spanish, 
though I give you what he said in my own tongue — 
“ surely I am dying. O Lord, how frightful to die ! O 
holy Virgin, be merciful to me ! I shall go to hell. O 
Jesu, I ain past forgiveness ! For the love of Heaven, 
Mr. Rodney, some brandy! Oh, that some saint would 
interpose for me I Only a few years longer — grant me 
a few years longer — I beseech for time that I may re- 
pent ! ” and he extended one quivering hand for the brandy 
(of which a draught stood melted in the oven), and made 
the sign of the cross upon his breast with the other, while 
he continued to whine out in his cracked pipes the wild- 
est appeals for mercy, saying a vast deal that I durst not 
venture to set down, so plentiful and awful were his 
cHmors for time that he might repent, though he never 
lapsed into blasphemy, but, on the contrary, discovered an 
agony of religious horror. 

I was much astonished and puzzled by this illness that 
had come upon him ; for, though he talked of darkness and 
faintness and of dying, he continued to sit up on his 
bench and to take pulls at the can of brandy I had handed to 
him. It might be, indeed, that a sudden faintness had ter- 
rified him nearly out of his senses with a prospect of ap- 
proaching death ; but that would not account for the pe- 
culiar note and appearance of age that had entered his 
figure, face, and voice. Then an extraordinary fancy oc- 
curred to me : Had the whole weight of the unhappy 
wretch’s years suddenly descended upon him ? Or, if not 
wholly arrived, might not these indications in him mark 
the first stages of a gradually increasing pressure ? The 
heat, the vivacity, the fierceness, spirits, and temper of the 
life I had been instrumental in restoring to him probably 
illustrated his character as it was eight-and-forty years 
since ; they had flourished artificially from the moment of 
his awakening down to the present hour, but now the hand 
of Time was upon this man, whose age was above a hundred. 
He might be decaying and wasting, even as he sat there, 
into such an intellectual condition and physical aspect as 
he would possess and submit to had he come without a break 
into his present age! 

I was fascinated by the mystery of his vitality, and breath- 
lessly watched him as if I expected to witness some harle- 
quin change in his face, and mark the transformation of 


THE FROZEN P/KATE, 


171 

his polished brow into the lean austerity of wrinkles. His 
voice sank into a mere whisper at last, and then, ceasing 
to speak altogether, he dropped his chin on to his bosom 
and began to sway from side to side, catching himself from 
falling with several paralytic starts, but without lifting his 
head or opening his eyes that I could see, and manifesting 
every symptom of extreme drowsiness. 

I got up and laid my hand on his shoulder, on which he 
turned his face and viewed me with one eye closed, the 
other scarce open. 

“How are you feeling now? said I. 

“ Sleepy — very sleepy,” he answered. 

“ I’ll put your mattress into your hammock,” said I, “ and 
the best thing you can do is to go and turn in properly and 
get a long night’s rest, and to-morrow morning you’ll feel 
yourself as hearty as ever.” 

He mumbled some answer, which I interpreted to signify 
“ Very well ; ” so I shouldered his mattress and slung a lan- 
tern in his cabin, and then returned to help him to bed. 
He sat reeling on the bench, his chin on his breast, catch- 
ing himself up as before with little, sharp, terrified recover- 
ies, and I was forced to put my hand on him again to make 
him understand I had come back. He then made as if to 
rise, but trembled so violently that he sank down again 
with a groan, and I was obliged to put my whole strength 
to the lifting of him to get him on to his legs. He leaned 
heavily upon me, breathing hard, stooping very much, and 
trembling. When we got to his cabin I perceived that he 
would never be able to climb into his hammock, nor had I 
the power to hoist a man of his bulk so high. To end the 
perplexity, I cut the hammock down and laid it on the deck, 
and covering him with a heap of clothes, unslung the lan- 
tern, wdshed him good night, closed the door, and returned 
to the furnace. 


CHAPTER XXIH. 

* THE ICE BREAKS AWAY. 

It was not yet eight o’clock. I was restless in my mind, 
under a great surprise, and was not sleepy. I filled a pipe, 
made me a little pannikin of punch, and sat down before 
the fire to think. If ever I had suspected the accuracy of 
my conjecture that the Frenchman’s sudden astonishing 


172 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


indisposition was the effect of his extreme age coming 
upon him and breaking down the artificial vitality with 
which he had bristled into life under my hands, I must 
have found fifty signs to set my misgivings at rest in his 
drowsiness, nodding, bowed form, weakness, his tottering 
and trembling, and other features of his latest behavior. 
If I was right, then I had reason to be thankful to Al- 
mighty God for this unparalleled and most happy dispen- 
sation ; for now I should have nothing to fear from the 
old rogue’s vindictiveness and horrid greed. Supposing 
him to be no more than a hundred, the infirmities of five- 
score years would stand between him and me, and protect 
me as effectually as his death. I had nothing to dread 
from a man who could scarce stand, whose palsied hand 
could scarce clasp a knife, whose evil tongue could scarce 
articulate the terrors of his soul or the horrors of his rec- 
ollections. 

The wonder of it all w^as so great it filled me with ad- 
miration and astonishment. Had he been dead and come 
to life again, as Lazarus, or one of those bodies which 
arose during the time our Lord hung upon the cross, then, 
questionless, he must have picked up the chain of his life 
at the link which death had broken, and continued his 
natural walk into age and decay (though interrupted by a 
thousand years of the sepulchre), as if his life had been 
without this black hiatus, and he was proceeding steadily 
and humanly from the cradle. But recollecting that the 
vital spark could never have been extinguished in him, I 
understood that Time, which has absolute control over 
life, still knew him as its prey during all those forty-eight 
years in which he had lain frozen ; that it had seized him 
now and suddenly, and pinned upon his back the full bur- 
den of his lustres. This, I say, I believed ; but the mor- 
row, of course, would give me further proof. 

Well, ’twas a happy and gracious deliverance for me. 
He could do me no hurt ; the scythe had sheared his tal- 
ons, and all without occasioning my conscience the least 
uneasiness whatever ; whereas, but for this interposition, 
I did truly and solemnly believe that it must have come 
to my having had to slay him that I might preserve my 
own life. 

Thus I sat for an hour smoking and wetting my lips 
with the punch, while the fire burned low, so exulting in 
the thought of my escape from the treacherous villain I 
had recovered from the grave, and in the feeling that I 


THE FROZE IV PIRATE. 


173 


might now be able to go to rest, to move here and there, 
to act as I pleased without being haunted and terrified by 
the shadow of his foul intent, that I hardly gave my mind 
for a moment to the situation of the schooner nor to the 
barren consequences of my fine scheme of mines. 

The wind blew strong. I could hear the humming of 
it in every fibre of the vessel. The bed on which she 
rested trembled to the blows of the seas upon the rocks. 
From time to time, in the midst of my musing, I started to 
the sharp claps of parted ice. Still feeling sleepless, I 
threw a few coals on the fire, and catching sight of the pi- 
rate-flag, opened it on the deck as wide as the space would 
permit, and sat down to contemplate the hideous insignia 
embroidered on it. My mind filled with a hundred fancies 
as my gaze went from the skull on the black field to the 
death’s-head pipe that had fallen from the grasp of Tas- 
sard and lay on the deck ; and I was sitting lost in a deep 
dreamlike contemplation, when I was startled and shocked 
into instantaneous activity by a blast of noise louder than 
any thunder-clap that ever I heard, ringing and booming 
through the schooner. This was followed by a second and 
then a third, at intervals, during which you might have 
counted ten, and I became sensible of a strange sickening 
motion, which lasted about twenty or thirty moments, 
such as might be experienced by one swiftly descending in 
a balloon, or in falling from a height while pent up in a 
coach. 

For a little while the schooner heeled over so violently 
that the benches and all things movable in the cook-room 
slid as far as they could go, and I heard a great clatter and 
commotion among the freight in the hold. She then came 
upright again, and simultaneously with this a vast mass of 
water tumbled on to the deck and washed over my head, 
and then fell another and then another, all in such a way 
as to make me know that the ice had broken and slipped 
the schooner close to the ocean, where she lay exposed to 
its surges — but not free of the ice, for she did not toss or 
roll. 

I seized the lantern and sprang to the cabin, where I 
hung it up, and mounted the companion-steps. But as I 
put my hand to the door to thrust it open, a sea broke over 
the side and filled the decks, bubbling and thundering past 
the companion-hatch in such a way as to advise me that I 
need but open the door to drown the cabin. I waited, my 
heart beating very hard, mad to see what had happened, 


174 


I'lIE FROZEN' P/RATE. 


but not daring to trust myself on deck lest I should be 
immediately swept into the sea. ’Twas the most terrible 
time I had yet lived through in this experience. To every 
blow of the billows the schooner trembled fearfully ; the 
crackling noise of the ice was as though I was in the thick 
of a heavy action. The full weight of the wind seemed to 
be upon the ship, and the screeching of it in the iron-like 
shrouds pierced to my ear through the hissing and tearing 
sounds of the water washing along the decks, and the vol- 
canic notes of the surges breaking over the vessel. I say, 
to hear all this and not to be able to see — to be ignorant 
of the situation of the schooner, not to know from one sec- 
ond to another whether she would not be crushed up and 
crumbled into staves, or be hurled off her bed and be- 
pounded to fragments upon the ice-rocks by the seas, or 
be dashed by the cannonading of the surge into the water 
and turned bottom up — made this time out and away more 
terrible than the collision between the Laughing Mary and 
the iceberg. 

I drew my breath with difficulty, and stood upon the 
companion-ladder hearkening with straining ears, my hand 
upon the door. I was now sensible of a long-drawn, stately, 
solemn kind of heaving motion in the schooner, which I 
put down to the roiling of the ice on which she rested ; and 
this convinced me that the mass in whose hollow she had 
been fixed had broken away, and was afloat and riding upon 
the swell that underran the billows. But I was far too much 
alarmed to feel any of those transports in which I must 
have indulged had this issue to my scheme happened in 
daylight and in smooth water. I was terrified by the ap- 
prehensions which had occurred to me even while I was 
at work on the mines — I mean that if the bed broke away 
the schooner would make it top-heavy, and that it would 
capsize ; and thus I stood in a very agony of expectancy, 
caged like a rat and as helpless as the dead. 

Half an hour must have passed, during which time the 
decks were incessantly swept by the seas, insomuch that 
I never once durst open the door even to look out. But 
nothing having happened to increase my consternation in 
this half-hour, though the movement in the schooner was 
that of a very ponderous and majestical rolling and heav- 
ing, showing her bed to be afloat, I began to find my spirits, 
and to listen and wait with some buddings of hope and 
confidence. At the expiration of this time the seas began 
to fall less heavily and regularly on to the deck, and pres- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


175 


ently I could only hear them breaking forward, but with- 
out a quarter their former weight, and nothing worse came 
aft than large brisk showers of spray. 

I armed myself with additional clothing for the encounter 
of the wet, cold, and wind, and then pushed open the door 
and stepped forth. The sky was dark with rolling clouds ; 
but the ice put its own light into the air, and I could see 
as plain as if the first of the dawn had broken. It was 
as I had supposed : the mass of the valley in which the 
schooner had been sepulchred for eight-and-forty years 
had come away from the main, and lay floating within a 
cable’s-length of the coast. A stranger, wonderfuller 
picture human eye never beheld. The island shore ran a 
rampart of faintness along the darkness to where it died 
out in liquid dust to right and left. The schooner sat 
upon a bed of ice that showed a surface of about half an 
acre ; her stern was close to the sea, and about six feet 
above it. On her larboard quarter the slope or shoulder 
of the acclivity had been broken by the rupture, and you 
looked over the side into the clear sea beyond the limit of 
the ice there ; but abreast of the fore-shrouds the ice rose 
in a kind of wall, a great splinter it looked of what was 
before a small broad-browed hill, and the wind or the sea 
having caused the body on which the schooner lay to veer, 
this wall stood as ashield betwixt the vessel and the surges, 
and was now receiving those blows which had heretofore 
struck her starboard side amidships and filled her decks. 

Oh, for a wizard's inkhorn, that I might make you see 
the picture as I view it now, even with the eye of memory ! 
The posture of the little berg pointed the schooner’s head 
seaward, about west ; the ice-terraces of the island lay, 
with the wild strange gleam of their own snow radiance 
upon them, upon the larboard quarter ; around the 
schooner lay the whiteness of her frozen seat, and her out- 
line was an inky, exquisitely defined configuration upon 
it ; above the crystal wall on the larboard bow rose the 
spume of the breaking surge in pallid bodies, glancing for 
an instant, and sometimes shaking a thunder into tlie ship 
when a portion of the seething water was flung by the 
wind upon the forecastle deck ; at moments a larger sea 
than usual overran the ice on the larboard beam and quar- 
ter, and boiled up round about the buttocks of the 
schooner. To leeward the smooth backs of the billows 
rolled away in jet, but the fitful throbbings and feeble 
flashings of froth commingled with the dim shine of the 


176 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


ice were over all, tincturing the darkness with a spectral 
sheen, giving to everything a quality of unearthliness that 
was sharpened yet by the sounds of the wind in the gloom 
on high and the hissing and foaming of waters sending 
their leagues-distant voices to the ear upon the wings of 
the icy blast. 

The wind, as I have said, blew from the southwest, but 
the trend of the island coast was northeast ; and as the 
mass of ice I was upon in parting from the main had 
floated to a cable’s-length from the cliffs there was not 
much danger, while the wind and sea held, of the berg (if 
I may so term it) being thrown upon the island. That 
the ice under the schooner was moving, and if so at what 
rate, it was too dark to enable me to know by observing 
the marks on the coast. There was to be no sleep for me 
that night, and knowing this I stepped below and built up 
a good fire, and then went with the lantern to see how 
Tassard did and to give him the news ; but he was in so 
deep a sleep that after pulling him a little without awaken- 
ing him I let him lie, nothing but the sound of his breath- 
ing persuading me that he had not lapsed into his old 
frozen state again. 

Of all long nights this was the longest I ever passed 
through. I did truly believe that the day was never to 
break again over the ocean. I must have gone from the 
fire to the deck thirty or forty times. The schooner con- 
tinued upright. I had no fear of her oversetting ; she sat 
very low, and the ice also showed but a small head above 
the water ; and as the body of it lay pretty flat, then, even 
supposing its submerged bulk was small, there was little 
chance of its capsizing. I also noticed that we were set- 
ting seaward — that is to say, to the westward — bv a notice- 
able shrinking of the pallid coast. But I never could stay 
long enough above to observe with any kind of narrowness, 
the wind being full of the wet that was flung over the ice- 
wall and the cold unendurable. 

All night I kept the fire going, and on several occasions 
visited the Frenchman, but found him motionless in sleep. 
I kept too good a lookout to apprehend any sudden ca- 
lamity short of capsizal, which I no longer feared ; and 
during the watches of that long night I dreamed a hun- 
dred waking dreams of my deliverance, of my share of the 
treasure, of my arriving in England, quitting the sea for- 
ever, and setting up as a great squire, marrying a noble- 
man’s daughter, driving in a fine coach, and ending with a 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


177 


seat in Parliament and a stout, well-sounding handle to my 
name. 

At last the day broke ; I went on deck, and found tlie 
dawn brightening into morning. The wind had fallen 
and with it the sea ; but there still ran a middling strong 
surge, and the breeze was such as, in sailors’ language, 
you would have shown your top-gallant sails to. I could 
now take measure of our situation, and was not a little as- 
tonished and delighted to observe the island to be at least 
a mile distant from us, and the northeast end lying verv 
plain, the ocean showing beyond it, though in the south- 
west the ice died out upon the sea line. That we had 
been set away from the main by some current was very 
certain. There was a westerly tendency in all the bergs 
which broke from the island, the small ones moving more 
quickly than the large ; for the sea in the north and west 
was dotted with at least fifty of these white masses, great 
and little. On the other hand, the wind and seas were 
answerable for the progress we had made to the north. 

The wall of ice, as I call it, that had stood over against 
the larboard bow was gone, and the seas tumbled with some 
heaviness of froth and much noise over the ice, past the 
bows, and washed past the bends on either side in froth 
rising as high as the channels. I noticed a great quantity 
of broken ice sinking and rising in the dark green curls of 
the billows, and big blocks would be hurled on to the 
schooner’s bed and then be swept off, sometimes fetching 
the bilge such a thump as seemed to swing a bellow 
through her frame. It was only at intervals, however, 
that water fell upon the decks, for the ice broke the beat 
of the moderating surge and forced it to expend its weight 
in spume, which there was not strength of wind enough 
to raise and heave. Since the vessel continued to lie head 
to sea, my passionate hope was that these repeated wash- 
ings of the waves would in time loosen the ice about her 
keel, in which case it would not need much of a billow, 
smiting her full bows fair, to slide her clean down and off 
her bed, and so launch her. There were many clouds in 
the heavens, but the blue was very pure between. The 
morning brightening with the rising of the sun, I directed 
an earnest gaze along the horizon, but there was nothing 
to see but ice. Some of the bergs, however, and more 
particularly the distant ones, stole out of the blue atmos- 
phere to the sunshine with so complete a resemblance to 
the lifting canvas of ships that I would catch myself star- 
12 


178 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


ing fixedly, my heart beating fast. But there was no de- 
jection in these disappointments ; the ecstasy that filled 
me on beholding the terrible island — the hideous frozen 
prison whose crystal bars I had again and again believed 
were never to be broken — now lying at a distance with its 
northern cape imperceptibly opening to our subtle move- 
ment, was so violent that I could not have found my voice 
for the tears in my heart. 

This, then, was the result of my scheme ; it was no 
failure, as Tassard had said ; as he owed his life to me, so 
now did he owe me his liberty. Nay, my transports were 
so great that I would not suffer myself to feel an instant's 
anxiety touching the condition of the schooner — I mean 
whether she would leak or prove sound when she floated 
— and how we. two men were to manage to navigate so 
large a craft, that was still as much spellbound aloft in 
her frozen canvas and tackle as ever she had been in the 
sepulchre in which I discovered her. 

I went below, and put the provisions we needed for 
breakfast into the oven, and entered Tassard’s cabin. On 
bringing the lantern to his face as he lay under half a 
score of coats upon the deck, I perceived that he was 
awake, and my heart being full I cried out cheerily, 
‘‘ Good news! good news ! — the gunpowder did its work. 
The ice is ruptured, and we are afloat, Mr. Tassard — afloat, 
and progressing north ! " 

He looked at me vacantly, and giving his head a shake, 
exclaimed, “ How can I crawl from this mound ? My 
strength is gone.” 

If I was amazed that the joyful intelligence I had 
delivered produced no other response than this querulous 
inquiry, I was far more astonished by the sound of his 
voice. It was the most cracked and venerable pipe that 
ever tickled the throat of old age — a mingling of wailing 
falsettos and of hollow, gasping growls, the whole very 
weak. I threw the clothes off him, and said, “ Do you 
wish to rise ? I will bring your breakfast here if you 
wish.” 

He looked at me, but made no answer. I bawled again, 
and observed, by the dim lantern-light that he watched 
my lips with an air of attention ; and while I waited for his 
reply, he said, “I don’t hear you.” 

Anxious to ascertain to what extent his hearing was 
impaired, I knelt on the deck, and, putting my lips to his 
ear, said, not very loud, “Will you come to the cook- 


THE FROZEN E/RATE. 


179 


house ?” which he did not hear ; and then louder, “Will 
you come to the cook-house ? ” which he did not hear 
either. I believed him stone-deaf, till, on roaring with all 
the power of my lungs, he answered, “Yes.” 

I took him by the hands and hauled him gently on to 
his feet, and had to continue holding him or he must have 
fallen. Time was beginning with him when he had gone 
to bed, and the remorseless old soldier had completely 
finished his work while his victim slept. I viewed the 
Frenchman while I grasped his hands, and there stood 
before me a shrunk, tottering, deaf, bowed, feeble old 
man. What was yesterday a polished head was now a 
shrivelled pate, as though the very skull had shrunk and 
left the skin to ripple into wrinkles, and sit loose and 
puckered. His hands trembled excessively. But his 
lower jaw was held in its place by his teeth ; and this per- 
petuated in the aged, dwindled countenance something of 
the likeness of the fierce and sinister visage that had con- 
fronted me yesterday. I was thunderstruck by the alter- 
ation, and stood overwhelmed with awe, confusion, and 
alarm. Then, re-collecting my spirits, I supported the 
miserable relic to the fire, putting his bench to the dresser, 
that he might have a back to lean against. 

He could scarce feed himself — indeed, he could hardly 
hold his chin off his breast. He had gone to bed a man, 
as I might take it, of fifty-six, and during the night the 
angel of Time had visited him, and there he sat, a hundred 
and three years of age ! 

He looked it. Ha, thought I, I was dreading your 
treachery yesterday ; there is nothing more to fear. Be- 
sides that he was nearly stone deaf, he could hardly see ; 
and I was sure, if he should be able to move at all, he 
could not stir a leg without the help of sticks. I was go- 
ing to roar out to him that we were adrift, but he looked 
so imbecile that I thought — to what purpose ? If there 
be aught of memory in him, let him sit and chew the cud 
thereof. He cannot last long — the cold must soon stop 
his heart. And with that I went on eating my breakfast 
in silence, but greatly affected by this astonishing mark of 
the hand of Providence, and under a very heavy and constant 
sense of awe ; for the like of such a transformation I am 
sure had never before encountered mortal eyes, and it was 
terrifying to be alone with it. 


iSo 


THE FROZEN FIR ATE, 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE FRENCHMAN DIES. 

However, if I expected my Frenchman to sit very long 
silent, he soon undeceived me by beginning to complain in 
his tremulous, aged voice, of his weakness and aching 
limbs. 

“’Tis the terrible cold that has affected me," said he, 
while his head nodded nervously. “ I feel the rheumatism 
in every bone. There is no weakness like the rheumatic, I 
have heard — and 'tis true, ’tis true ! It may lay me along 
— ^yes, by the Virgin, 'tis rheuma.tism — what else ? " Here 
he was interrupted by a long fit of coughing ; and when it 
was ended he turned to address me again, but looked at 
the bulkhead on my right, as if his vision could not fix me. 
“ But my capers are not over ! " he cried, setting up his 
rickety, shrill throat : “ no, no ! vive Tamour ! vive lajoie ! 
The sun is coming — the sun is the fountain of life — ay, 
mon brave, there are some shakes in these stout legs yet ! " 
He shook his head with a fine air of cunning and knovving- 
ness, grinning very oddly ; and then, falling grave witli a 
startling suddenness, he began to dribble out a piratical 
love-story he had once before favored me with, describing 
the charms of the woman with a horrid leer, his head nodd- 
ing with the nervous affection of age all the time, while he 
looked blindly in my direction — a hideous and yet pitiful 
object ! 

I could not say that his mind was gone ; but he talked 
with many breaks for breath, and not very coherently, as 
though the office of his tongue was performed by habit 
rather than memory, so that he often went far astray and 
babbled into sentences that had no reference to what had 
gone before, though on the whole I managed to collect 
what he meant. I was sure he had not power enough of 
vision to observe me in the dim reddish light of the cook- 
room, and this being so he could not know I was present 
—more particularly as he could not hear me ; yet he per- 
sisted in his poor babble, which was a behavior in him that, 
more than even the matter of his speech, persuaded me of 
his imbecility. 

He made no reference to our situation, and in solemn 
truth I believe his memory retained no more than a few 


THE FROZEN FIR ATE. 


l8i 


odds and ends of the evil story of his life-like bits of tar- 
nished lace and a rusty button or two lying in the bottom 
of a dark chest that has long been emptied of the clothes 
it once held. 

But my condition made such heavy demands upon my 
thoughts that I had very much less attention to give to 
this surprising phenomenon of senility than its uncommon 
merits deserved. It has puzzled every member of the 
faculty that I have mentioned it to, the supposition being 
that, given the case of suspended animation, there is no 
waste, and the person would quit his stupor with the same 
powers and aspect as he possessed when he entered it, 
though it lasted a thousand years. But granting there is no 
waste, Time is always present waiting to settle accounts 
when the sleeper lifts his head. There may be an artifi- 
cial interval, during w'hich the victim might show as my 
pirate did— but the poised load of years is severed on a 
sudden by the scythe and becomes superincumbent, and 
with the weight comes the transformation ; and this 
tlieory, as the only eye-witness of the marvellous thing, I 
will hold and maintain while I have breath in my body to 
support it ! 

I left him gabbling to himself — sometimes grinning as 
if greatly diverted, sometimes lifting a trembling hand to 
help his ghostly recital by an equally ghostly dumb-show 
— and went on deck, satisfied that he was too weak to get 
to the fire and meddle with it, but sufficiently invigorated 
by his long night’s rest to sit up without tumbling off the 
bench. 

This time I carried with me an old perspective glass I 
liad noticed in the chest in my cabin — the chest in which 
were the nautical instruments, charts, and papers — and 
levelled it along the coast of the island ; but it was a poor 
glass, and I found I could manage nearly as well with the 
naked eye. There was no change of any kind, only that 
there was a sensible diminution in the blowing of the 
wind, and a corresponding decrease in the height of the 
seas. The ice stretched in a considerable bed on either 
hand the ship and ahead of her ; the water frothed freely 
over it, and there was a great jangling and clashing of 
broken pieces, but the hull was no longer heavily hit by 
them. 

I got into the main-chains to view the body of the vessel, 
and noticed with satisfaction that the constant pouring of 
the sea had thinned down the frozen snow to the depth of 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


182 

at least a foot. This encouraged me to hope that the rest- 
less tides would sap to her keel at least, and put her into 
a posture to be easily launched by the blow of a surge 
upon her bows — that is, if fortune continued to keep her 
head on. But by this time, my transports having moder- 
ated, I was grown fully sensible of the extreme peril of 
our position. Should the sea rise and the ice bring her 
broadside to it, it was inevitable, it seemed to me, that she 
must go to pieces ; or, if the ice on which she floated 
fouled some other berg, it might cost us all our spars. 
Then again occurred the dismal question. Suppose she 
should launch herself, would she float? For eight-and- 
forty years she had been high and dry ; never a calker’s 
hammer had rung upon her in all that time. Tassard had 
spoken of her as a stout ship, and so she was, I did not 
doubt ; but the old rogue talked as if she had been 
stranded six months only ! I had no other hope than that 
the intense cold had treated her timbers as it had treated 
the bodies of her people — an expectation not unreasonable 
when I considered the state of her stores and the manifest 
substantiality of her inward fabric. 

I regained the deck and stepped over to the pumps. 
There were two of them, but built up in snow. My busi- 
ness was to save my life if I could, and the schooner too, 
for the sake of the great treasure in her. Nothing must 
disconcert me, I said to myself — I must spare no labor, 
but act a hearty sailor’s part, and ask for God’s counte- 
nance. So I trotted below, and selecting some weapons 
from the arm’s-room, such as a tomahawk, a spade-headed 
spear, a pike, and a chopper, I returned to the pumps and 
fell upon them with a will. The ice flew about me, but I 
continued to smite, the exercise making me hot and re- 
newing my spirits, and in an hour — but it took me an 
hour — I had chopped, hacked, and beaten one of the 
pumps pretty clear of its thick crystal coat. They were 
what is called brake-pumps — that is to say, pumps which 
are worked by handles. The ice, of course, held them im- 
movable ; but they looked to be perfectly sound, in good 
working order, though there would be neither chance nor 
need to test them until the schooner went afloat. 

I cleared the other one, and was v/ell satisfied with my 
morning’s work. But I did bitterly lament the lack of a 
little crew. Even the Frenchman as he was yesterday 
would have served my turn ; for between us we might have 
made shift to clamber aloft, and with hatchets break the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


183 

sails free of their ice bonds, and so expose canvas enough 
to hold the wind, which could not have failed to impart a 
swifter motion to the berg. But with my single pair of 
bands I could only look up idly at the yards and gaffs 
standing hard as granite. Still, even such surface as the 
yards and rigging’ offered to the breeze helped our prog- 
ress. We were but a very little berg — nay, not a berg, 
but rather a. sheet of ice lying indifferently flat upon the 
sea, and, as I believe, without much depth. Our spars and 
gear were as if the ice itself were rigged as a ship, and then 
there was the height of the hull besides to offer to the 
breeze a tolerable resistance for its offices of propulsion. 
In this way I explain our progress ; but whatever the 
cause, certain it was that our bed of ice was fairly under 
way, and at noon the island of ice bore at least half a 
league distant from us, and we had opened the sea broadly 
past its northern cape. 

I have often diverted myself with wondering what sort 
of impression the posture of our schooner would have made 
on the minds of sailors sighting us from their deck. We 
looked to be floating out of water, and mariners who re- 
gard the devil as a conjurer must have accepted us as one 
of his pet inventions. 

The many icebergs which encumbered the sea filled me 
with anxiety. We were travelling faster than they, and it 
seemed impossible that we could miss striking one or 
another of them. Yet perilous as they were, I could not 
but admire their beautiful appearance as they floated upon 
the dark blue of the running waters, flashing out very 
gloriously to the sun with a sparkling of tints upon their 
whiteness as if fires of twenty different colors had been 
kindled upon their craggy steeps, and then fading into a 
sulky watchet to the dull violet shadowing of the passing 
clouds. I particularly marked a very brilliant scene of the 
opening of five or six of them to the sunshine. They lay 
in such wise that the shadow of the cloud covered them 
all as with a veil, the skirts of which trailing left them to 
leap one after the other into the noontide dazzle ; and as 
each one shot from the shadow the flash was like a vol- 
canic spouting of white flame enriched with the prismatic 
dyes of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and gems of lovely 
hue. 

To determine the hour and our position I fetched a 
quadrant from my cabin, and was happily just in time to 
catch the sun crossing the meridian. My watch was half 


THE FROZEN P/RAl'E. 


184 

an hour fast, so I had been out of my rcckoning to the 
extent of thirty minutes ever since I had been cast away. 
I made our latitude to be sixty-four degrees twenty-eight 
minutes south, and the computation was perhaps near 
enough. 

This business ended, I went to the cook-house to pre- 
pare dinner, and the first object I saw was Tassard fiat 
upon his face near the door that opened into the cabin. 
He groaned when I picked him up — which I managed 
without much exertion of strength, for so much had he 
shrunk that I dare say more than half his weight lay in 
his clothes — and set him upon his bench with his back to 
the dresser. I put my mouth to his ear and roared “Are 
you hurt?” His head nodded as if he Understood me, 
but I question if he did. He was the completest picture 
of old age that you could imagine. I fetched a couple of 
spears from the arms-room, and, cutting them to his 
height, put one in each hand, that he might keep himself 
propped ; and while my own dinner was broiling I made 
him a mess of broth, with wdiich I fed him, for now that 
he had the sticks he would not let go of them. But in any 
case I doubt if his trembling hand could have lifted the 
spoon to his lips without capsizing the contents down his 
beard. 

With some small idea of rallying the old villain, I mixed 
him a very stiff bumper of brandy, which he supped down 
out of my hand with the utmost avidity. The draught 
soon worked in him, and he began to move his head about, 
seeking me in his blind way, and then cried in his broken 
notes, “ I have lost the use of my legs, and cannot walk. 
Mother of God what shall I do ! Oh, holy St. Antonio, 
what is to become of me ? “ 

I guessed from this that, impelled by habit or some 
small spur of reason, he had risen to go on deck, and had 
fallen. He went on vaporing pitifully, gazing with suf- 
ficient steadfastness to let me understand that his vision 
received something of my outline, though he would fix 
liis eyes either to left or right of me, as though he was not 
able to see if he looked straight ; and this, and his mourn- 
ful cackle, and his nodding head, bowed form, propped 
hands, and diminished face, made him as distressful and 
melancholy a picture of Time as ever mortal man viewed. 
He broke off in his rambling to ask for more brandy, tak- 
ing it for granted that I was still in the cook-room, for I 
never spoke, and I filled a can for him, and as before held 


THE FROZEH PJRA TE. 


185 

it to his mouth, which he opened wide — a piece of behav- 
ior which went to show that some of his wits still hung 
loose upon him. This was a strong dose, and, co-operat- 
ing with the other, soon seized hold on his head, and pres- 
ently he began to laugh to himself and talk, and even 
broke into a stave or two — some French song, which he 
delivered in a voice like the squeaking of a rat alternating 
with the growling of a terrier. 

I guess his stumbling upon this old French catch (which 
I took it to be from seeing him feebly flourish one of his 
sticks, as if inviting a chorus} put him upon speaking 
his own tongue altogether ; for though he continued to 
chatter with all the volubility his breath would permit 
during the whole time I sat eating, not one word of Eng- 
lish did he speak, and not one word therefore did I under- 
stand. Seeing how it must be with him presently, I 
brought his mattress and rugs from his cabin, and had 
scarcely laid them down when he let fall one of his sticks 
and dropped over. I grasped him, and partly lifting, 
partly hauling, got him on his back and covered him up. 
In a few minutes he was asleep. 

I trust I shall not be deemed inhuman if I confess that 
I heartily wished his end would come. If he went on liv- 
ing he promised to be an intolerable burden to me, being 
quite helpless. Besides, he was much too old for this 
world, in which a man who reaches the age of ninety is 
pointed to as a sort of wonder. 

As there was nothing to be done on deck, I filled my 
pipe and made myself comfortable before the furnace, and 
was speedily sunk in meditation. I reviewed all the cir- 
cumstances of my case and considered my chances ; and 
the nimble heels of imagination carrying me home with 
this schooner, I asked myself, suppose I should have the 
good fortune to convey the treasure in safety to England, 
how was I to secure it ? Let me imagine myself arrived 
in the Thames. The whole world stares at the strange 
antique craft sailing up the river ; she would be boarded 
and rummaged by the customs people, who of course 
would light upon the treasure. What then ? I knew noth- 
ing of the law ; but I reckoned, since I should have to tell 
the truth, that the money, ore, and jewelry would be 
claimed as stolen property, and I dismissed with a small 
reward for bringing it home. There was folly in such con- 
templation at such a time, when perhaps at this hour to- 
morrow the chests might be at the bottom of the sea, and 


i86 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


myself a drowned sailor floating three hundred fathoms 
deep. But man is a froward child, who builds mansions 
out of dreams, and jockeyed by hope, sets out at a gallop 
along the visionary road to his desires ; and my mind was 
so much taken up with considering how I should manage 
wlien I brought the treasure home that I spent a couple 
of hours in a conflict of schemes, during which time it 
never once occurred to me to reflect that I was a good way 
from home still, and that much must happen before I need 
give myself the least concern as to the securing of the 
treasure. 

Nothing worth recording happened that day. The wind 
slackened, and the ice travelled so slow that at sundown 
I could not discover that we had made more than a quar- 
ter of a mile of progress to the north since noon, though 
we had settled by half as much again that distance westward. 
While I was below I could hear the ice crackling pretty 
briskly round about the ship, which gave me some com- 
fort ; but I could never see any change of consequence 
when I looked over the side or bows — only that at about 
four o’clock, while I was taking a view from the forecas- 
tle, a large block broke away from beyond the starboard 
bow with the report of a swivel-gun. 

I had not closed my eyes on the previous night, and 
was tired out when the evening arrived ; and as no good 
could come of my keeping a watch, for the simple reason 
that it was not in my power to avert anything that might 
happen, I tumbled some further covering over the French- 
man, who had lain on the deck all the afternoon, sometimes 
dozing, sometimes waking and talking to himself and ap- 
pearing on the whole very easy and comfortable, and 
went to my cabin. 

I slept sound the whole night through, and on waking 
went on deck before going to the cook-house and lighting 
the furnace, as was my custom, so impatient was I to ob- 
serve our state, and to hear such news as the ocean had 
for me. It was after eight — a very curious day, somewhat 
darksome, and a dead calm, with a large, long swell out 
of the southeast. The sky was full of clouds, with a 
stooping appearance in the hang of them that reminded 
you of the belly of a hammock ; they were of a sallow 
brown, very uncommon ; some of them round about 
sipped the sea-line, and their shadows, obliterating those 
parts of the cincture which they overhung, broke the con- 
tinuity of the horizon as though there were valleys in the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


187 


ocean there. A good part of our bed of ice was gone — at 
least a fourth of it ; but the schooner still lay as strongly 
fixed as before. 1 had come to the deck half expecting to 
find her afloat from the regular manner of her heaving, 
and was bitterly disappointed to discover her rooted as 
strongly as ever in the ice, though the irritation softened 
when I noticed how the bed had diminished. The mass, 
with the ship upon it, rose and sank, with the sluggish 
squatting motion of a water-logged vessel. It was an odd 
sensation to my legs after their long rest from such exer- 
cise. The heaving satisfied me that the base of the bed 
did not go deep, but at the same time it was all too solid 
for me, I could not doubt ; for, had the sheet been as thin 
as I had hoped it, it must have given under the weight of 
the schooner and released her. 

The island lay a league distant on the larboard beam, 
and looked a wondrous vast field of ice going into the 
south, and it stared very ghastly upon the dark-green sea 
out of the clouds whose gloom stared behind it. I could 
not observe that we had drifted anything to the north, 
while our set to the westward had been steady though 
snail-like. The sea in the north and northwest swarmed 
with bergs, like great snow-drops on the green undulating 
fields of the deep. Now and again the swell, in which 
fragments of ice floated with the gleam of crystal in liquid 
glass, would be too quick for our dull rise and overflow 
the bed, brimming to the channels with much noise of 
foam and pouring waters ; but the interposition of the 
ice took half its weight out of it, and it never did more 
than send a tremble through the vessel. 

What to make of the weather I knew not. Certainly, 
of all the caprices of this huge, cold sea its calms are the 
shortest lived ; but this knowledge helped me to no other. 
The clouds did not stir. In the northeast a beam of sun- 
shine stood like a golden water-spout, its foot in a little 
flood of glory. It stayed all the while I was on deck, 
showing that the clouds had scarce any motion, and made 
the picture of the sea that way beyond nature to my sight 
by the contrast of the defined shaft of gold, burning 
purely, with the dusk of the clouds all about, and of the 
pool of dazzle at its foot with the ugly green of the water 
that melted into it. 

I went below and got about lighting the fire. The 
Frenchman lay very quiet, under as many clothes as would 
fill half a dozen sacks. It was bitterly cold — sharper in 


i88 


TfiE FROZEN P/RATE. 


the cook-house than I had ever remembered it ; and I 
could not conceive why this should be, until I recollected 
that I had forgotten to close the companion hatch before 
going to bed. I prepared some broth for my companion, 
and dressed some ham for myself, and ate my breakfast, 
supposing he would meanwhile awake. But after sitting 
some time and observing that he did not stir, a suspicion 
flashed into my mind : I kneeled down, and clearing his 
face, listened. He did not breathe. I brought the lan- 
tern to him ; but his countenance had been so changed by 
his unparalleled emergence from a state of middle life into 
extreme old age — he was so puckered, hollowed, gaunt, 
his features so distorted by the great weight of his years 
— that I was not to know him dead by merely viewing 
him. I threw the clothes off him, listened at his mouth 
breathlessly, felt his hands, which were ice-cold. Dead, 
indeed ! thought I. Great Father, ’tis Thy will ! And 
I rose very slowly, and stood surveying the silent figure 
with an emotion that owed its inspiration partly to the 
several miracles of vitality I had beheld in him during our 
association, and to a bitter feeling of loneliness that 
swelled up in me. 

Yes, I had feared and detested this man ; but his quick 
transformation and silent, dark exit affected me, and I 
looked down upon him sadly. Yet, to be perfectly candid 
with you, I recollect that, though it occurred to me to test 
if life was out of him by bringing him close to the fire 
and chafing him and giving him brandy, I would not stir. 

No, I would not have moved a finger to recover him, 
even though I should have been able to do so by merely 
putting him to the furnace. He was dead, and there was 
an end ; and without further ado I carried him into the 
forecastle and threw a hammock over him, and left him to 
lie there till there should come clear water to the ship to 
serve him for a grave. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE SCHOONER FREES HERSELF. 

All day long the weather remained sullen and still, and 
the swell powerful. I was on deck at noon, looking at an 
iceberg half a league distant, when it overset. It was a 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 189 

small b^rg, though large compared with most of the others ; 
yet such a mighty volume of foam boiled up as gave me 
a startling idea of the prodigious weight of the mass. 
The sight made me very anxious about my own state; 
and to satisfy my mind I got upon the ice and walked 
round the vessel, and to get a true view of her posture 
went to the extreme end of the rocks beyond her bows ; 
and finally came to the conclusion that, supposing the ice 
should crumble away from her sides so as to cause the 
weight of the schooner to render it top-heavy, her buoy- 
ancy, on touching the water, would certainly tear her keel 
out of its frosty setting and leave her floating. Indeed, so 
sure I was of this that I saw, next to the ice splitting and 
freeing her in that way, the best thing that could happen 
would be its capsizal. 

I regained the ship, and had paused an instant to look 
over the side, when I perceived the very block of ice on 
which I had come to a halt, break from the bed with a 
smart clap of noise, and completely roll over. Only a 
minute before had I been standing on it, and thus had sixty 
seconds stood between me and death ; for most certainly 
must I have been drowned or killed by being beaten 
against the ice by the swell ! I fell upon my knees and 
lifted up my hands in gratitude to God, feeling extraordi- 
narily comforted by this further mark of His care of me, 
and very strongly persuaded that He designed I should 
come ofl with my life after all, since His providence would 
not work so many miracles for my preservation if I was to 
perish by this adventure. 

These thoughts did more for my spirits than I can well 
express ; and the intolerable sense of loneliness was miti- 
gated by the knowledge that I was w^atched, and therefore 
not alone. 

The day passed I know not how. The shadow as of tem- 
pest hung in the air, but never a cat’s-paw did I see to 
blur the rolling mirror of the ocean. The hidden sun sank 
out of the breathless sky, tinging the atmosphere with a 
faint hectic, which quickly yielded to the deepest shade of 
blackness. The mysterious, desperate silence, however, 
that on deck weighed oppressively on every sense, as 
something false, menacing, and malignant in these seas, 
was qualified below by peculiar straining noises in the 
schooner’s hold, caused by the swinging of the ice upon 
the swell. I was very uneasy; I dreaded a gale. It was 
impossible but that the vessel must quickly go to pieces 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


190 

in a heavy sea upon the ice if she did not liberate herself. 
But though this excited a depression melancholy enough, 
nothing else that I can recollect contributed to it. When 
I reviewed the apprehension the Frenchman had raised, 
and reflected how unsupportable a burden he must have 
become, I was very well satisfied to be alone. Time had 
fortified me ; I had passed through experiences so surpris- 
ing, encountered wonders so preternatural, that supersti- 
tion lay asleep in my soul, and I found nothing to occa- 
sion in me the least uneasiness in thinking of the lifeless, 
slirivelled figure of what was just now a fierce, cowardly, 
untamed villain lying in the forecastle. 

1 made a good supper, built up a large fire, and mixed 
myself a hearty bowl of punch, not with the view of drown- 
ing my anxieties — God forbid ! I was too grateful for the 
past, too expectant of the future, to be capable of so brut- 
ish a folly — but that I might keep myself in a cheerful 
posture of mind ; and, being sick of my own company, 
took the lantern to the cabin lately used by the French- 
man, and found in a chest there, among sundry articles of 
attire, a little parcel of books, some in Dutch and Portu- 
guese, and one in English. 

It was a little old volume, the author’s name not given, 
and proved to be a relation of the writer’s being taken by 
pirates, and the many dangers he underwent. There was 
nothing in it, to be sure, that answered to my own case, 
)’et it interested me mightily as an honest, unvarnished 
narrative of sea’s perils ; and I see myself now in fancy 
reading it — the lantern hanging by a lanyard close beside 
my head, the book in one hand, my pipe in the other, the 
furnace roaring pleasantly, my feet close to it, and the atmos- 
phere of the oven fragrant with the punch that I put there 
to prevent it from freezing. I had come to a certain page, 
and was reading this passage : “ Soon after we were on 
board we all went into the great cabin, where we found 
nothing but destruction. Two scrutoires I had there were 
broken to pieces, and all the fine goods and necessaries in 
them were all gone. Moreover, two large chests that had 
books in them were empty, and I was afterward informed 
that they had been all thrown overboard ; for one of the 
pirates on opening them swore there was jaw-work 
enough (as he called it) to serve a nation, and proposed 
tliat they might be cast into the sea, for he feared there 
might be some books among them that might breed mis- 
chief enough, and prevent some of their comrades from 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


191 

going on in their voyage to hell, whither they were all 
bound ” — I say, I was reading this passage, not a little 
affected by the impiety of the rascal, for whose portrait 
my dead Frenchman might very well have sat, when I was 
terrified by an extraordinary loud explosion, that burst so 
near and rang with such a prodigious clear note of thun- 
der through the schooner, that I vow to God I believed 
the gunpowder below had blown up. And in this sus- 
picion I honestly supposed myself right for a moment — 
for on running into the cabin I was dazzled by a crimson 
flame that clothed the whole interior with a wondrous 
gush of fire ; but this being instantly followed by such an- 
other clap as the other, I understood a thunder-storm had 
broken over the schooner. 

It was exactly overhead, and that accounted for the vio- 
lence of the crashes, which were indeed so extreme that 
they sounded rather like the splitting of enormous bodies 
of ice close to than the flight of electric bolts. The hatch 
lay open ; I ran on deck ; but scarce had passed my head 
through the companion when down came a storm of 
hail, every stone as big as a pigeon’s egg ; and in all my 
time I never heard a more hellish clamor. There was not 
a breath of air. The hail fell in straight lines, which the 
fierce near lightning flashed up into the appearance of 
giant harpstrings, on which the black hand of the night 
was playing those heavy notes of thunder. I sat in the 
shelter of the companion, very anxious and alarmed, for 
there was powder enough in the hold to blow the ship 
into atoms ; and the lightning played so continuously and 
piercingly that it was like a hundred darts of fire, violet, 
crimson, and sun-colored, in the grasp of spirits who 
thrust at the sea, all ov^er its face, with swift movement of 
the arms, as though searching for the schooner to spear 
her. 

The hail-storm ceased as suddenly as it had burst. I 
stepped on to the deck, and ’twas like treading on shingle. 
There was not the least motion in the air, and the stagna- 
tion gave an almost supernatural character to the thunder 
and lightning. The ocean was lighted up to its farthest 
visible confines by the flames in the sky, and the repeated 
explosions of thunder exceeded the roaring of the ordnance 
of a dozen squadrons in hot fight. The ice coast in the 
east, and the two-score bergs in the north and west leaped 
out of one hue into another ; and were my days in this 
world to exceed those of old Abraham, I should to my 


192 


THE FROZEN PIRA TE. 


last breath remember the solemn and terrible magnificence 
of that picture of lightning-colored ice, the sulphur-tinc- 
tured shapes of the swollen bodies of clouds bringing their 
dark electric mines together in a huddle, the answering 
flash of the face of the deep to the lancing of each spiral, 
dazzling bolt, with the air as still a-s the atmosphere of a 
cathedral for the thunder to roll its echoes through. 

There was a second furious shower of hail ; and when 
that was over I looked forth and observed that the storm 
was settling into the northeast, whence I concluded that 
what draught there might be up there sat in the southwest. 
Nor was I mistaken ; for half an hour after the first of the 
outburst, by which time the lightning played weak and 
at long intervals low down, and the thunder had ceased, 
I felt a crawling of air coming out of the southwest, which 
presently briskened into a small, steady blowing. But 
not for long. It freshened yet and yet ; the wrinkles 
crisped into whiteness on the black heavings ; they grew 
into small surges with sharp cubbish snarlings preludious 
of the lion’s voice ; and by ten o’clock it was blowing in 
strong squalls, the seas rising, and the clouds sailing swiftly 
in smoke-colored rags under the stars. 

The posture of the ice inclined the schooner’s starboard 
bow to the billows ; and in a very short time she was trem- 
bling in every bone to the blows of the surges which rolled 
boiling over the ice there and struck her, flinging dim 
clouds of spume in the air, which soon set the scuppers 
gushing. My case was that of a stranded ship, with this 
difference only, that a vessel ashore lies solid to the beat- 
ing of the waves ; whereas the ice was buoyant ; it rose 
and fell, sluggishly, it is true, and so somewhat mitigated 
the severity of the shocks of water. But, spite of this, I 
was perfectly sure that unless the bed broke under her or 
she slipped off it, she would be in pieces before the morn- 
ing. It was not in any hull put together by human hands 
to resist the pounding of those seas. The weight of the 
mighty ocean along whose breast they raced was in them, 
and though the wind was no more than a brisk gale, each 
billow by its stature showed itself the child of a giantess. 
The ice-bed was like a whirlpool with the leap and flash 
and play of the froth upon it. The black air of the night 
was whitened by the storms of foam-flakes which flew over 
the vessel. The roaring of the broken waters increased 
the horrors of the scene. I firmly believed my time was 
come. God had been merciful, but I was to die now. As 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


193 

to making any shift to keep myself alive after the ship 
should be broken up, the thought never entered my head. 
What could I do ? There was no boat. I might have con- 
trived some arrangement of booms and casks to serve as a 
raft ; but to what purpose ? How long would it take the 
wind and sea to freeze me ? 

I crouched in the companion-way hearkening to the up- 
roar around, feeling the convulsions of the schooner, fully 
prepared for death, dogged and hopeless. No, I was not 
afraid. Suffering and expectation had brought me to that 
pass that I did not care. “ 'Tis such an end as hundreds 
and thousands of sailors have met,” I remember thinking ; 
‘‘it is the fittest exit for a mariner. I have sinned in my 
time, but the Almighty God knows my heart.” To this 
tune ran my thoughts. I held my arms tightly folded upon 
my breast, and with set lips waited for the first of those 
crashing and rending sounds which would betoken the ruin 
and destruction of the schooner. 

So passed half an hour; then, being half perished with 
the cold, I went to the furnace — for when the vessel went 
to pieces it would matter little in what part of her I was — 
and warmed myself, and took a dram as a felon swallows a 
draught on his way to the scaffold. Were I to attempt to 
describe the character of the thunderous noises in the ship 
I should not be believed- The seas raised a most deafening 
roaring as they boiled over the ice and rolled their volumes 
against the vessel’s sides. Every curl swung a load of frozen 
broken pieces against the bows and bends, and the shocks 
resounded through her like blows from Cyclopean ham- 
mers. It was as if I had been seated in the central stagnant 
heart of a small revolving hurricane, feeling no faintest 
sigh of air upon my cheek, while close around whirled the 
hellish tormenting conflict of white waters and yelling 
blasts. 

On a sudden— in a breath— I felt the vessel rise. She 
was swung up with the giddy velocity of a hunter clearing 
a tall gate ; she sank again, and there was a mighty concus- 
sion forward, then a pause of steadiness while you might 
have counted five, then a wild upward heave, a sort of sharp 
floating fall, a harsh grating along her keel and sides, as 
though she was being smartly warped over rocks, followed 
by an unmistakable free pitching and rolling motion. 

I had sprung tp my feet, and stood waiting ; but the in- 
stant I gathered by the movements of her that she was re- 
leased I sprang like a madman up the companion steps. 

13 


194 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


The sea, breaking on her bow, flew in heavy showers 
along the deck, and half blinded me. But I was semi-del- 
irious, and having sat so long with Death’s hand in mine, 
was in a passionately defiant mood, with a perfect rage of 
scorn of peril in me, and I walked right on to the forecastle, 
giving the flying sheets of water there no heed. In a min- 
ute a block of sea tumbled upon me and left me breathless ; 
the iciness of it cooled my mind’s heat, but not my reso- 
lution. I was determined to judge, as best I could by the 
light of the foam, what had happened, and holding on ten- 
aciously to whatever came to my hand, and progressing 
step by step, I got to the forecastle and looked ahead. 

Where the ice was the water tumbled in milk ; ’twas four 
or five ship’s lengths distant, and I could distinguish no 
more than that. I peered over the lee bow, but could see 
no ice. The vessel had gone clear ; how, I knew not, and 
can never know ; but my own fancy is that she split the bed 
with her own weight when the sea rose and. threw the ice 
up, for she had floated on a sudden, and the noises which 
attended her release indicated that she had been forced 
through a channel. 

I returned aft, barely escaping a second deluge, and 
looked over the quarter ; no ice was there visible to me. 
The vessel rolled horribly, and I perceived that she had a 
decided list to starboard, the result of the shifting of what 
was in her when the ice came away from the main with 
her ; and it was this heel that brought the sea washing 
over the bow. I took hold of the tiller to try it, but either 
the helm was frozen immovable, or the rudder jammed in 
its gudgeons, or in some other fashion fixed. 

Had she been damaged below ? Was she taking in 
water ? I knew her to be so thickly sheathed with ice 
that, unless it had been scaled off in places by the break- 
ing of her bed, I had little fear (until this covering melted 
or dropped off by the working of the frame) of the hull 
not proving tight. I should have been coated with ice 
myself had I stayed but a little longer in my wet clothes 
in that piercing wind ; so 1 ran below, and bringing an 
armful of clothes from my cabin to the cook-room, was 
very soon in dry attire, and making an extraordinary fig- 
ure, I don’t question, in the buttons, lace, and fripperies 
of the old-fashioned garments. 

The incident of the schooner’s release from the ice had 
come upon me so suddenly, and at a time, too, when my 
mind was so terribly disordered, that I scarce realized the 


THE FROZEN- P/RATE. 


*95 


full meaning of it until I had shifted myself and fortified 
my heart with a dram, and got warm in the glow of the 
furnace. By this time she had fallen into the trough, and 
was laboring like a cask ; that she would prove a heavy 
roller in a seaway a single glance at her buttocks and 
swelling bilge might have persuaded me ; but I never 
could have dreamed she would wallow so monstrously. 
The oscillation was rendered more formidable by her list, 
and there were moments when I could not keep my feet. 
She was shipping water very freely over her starboard 
rail, but this did not much concern me ; for the break of 
the poop-deck kept the after-part of the vessel indifferently 
dry, and the forecastle and main hatches were all secured. 
But there was one great peril I knew not how to provide 
against — I mean the flotilla of icebergs in the north and 
west. They lay in a long chain upon the sea, and though, 
to be sure, there was no doubt a wide channel between 
each, through which it might have been easy to carry a 
ship under control, yet there was every probability of a 
vessel in the defenceless condition of the schooner, with- 
out a stitch of sail on her and under no other government 
of helm than a fixed rudder, being swept against one of 
those frozen floating hills, when indeed it would be good- 
night to her and to me too ; for after such a catastrophe 
the sun would never rise for me or her again. 

Meanwhile, I was crazy to ascertain if the schooner was 
taking in water. If there was a sounding-rod in the ship 
I did not know where to lay my hands upon it. But he is 
a poor sailor who is slow at substitutes. Tliere were sev- 
eral spears in the arms-room (piratical plunder, no doubt) 
with mere spikes for heads, like those weapons used by the 
Caffresand other tribes in that country ; they were formed 
of a hard, heavy wood. I took a length of ratline line and 
secured it to one of these spears, and carried it on deck 
with the powder-room bull’s-eye lamp ; but when I probed 
the sounding-pipe I found it full of ice, and as it was im- 
possible to draw the pumps I flung my ingenious sounding- 
rod down in a passion of grief and mortification. 

Yet was I not to be beaten. Such was my temper, had 
the devil himself confronted me I should have defied him 
to do his worst, for I had made up my mind to weather 
him out. I entered the forecastle, lantern in hand, pried 
open the hatch, and dropped into the hold. It needed an 
experienced ear to detect the sobbing of internal waters 
amid the yearning gushes, the long, gurgling washings, the 


196 


7' HE FROZEN P/RATE. 


thunderous blows, and shrewd rain-like hissings of the 
seas outside. I listened with strained hearing for some 
minutes, but distinguished no sounds to alarm me with 
assurance of water in the hold. I could not mistake. I 
hearkened with all my might, but the noise was outside. 
I thanked God very heartily, and got out of the hold and 
put the hatch on. There was no need to go aft and listen. 
The schooner was by the head, and there could be no water 
in the run that would not be forward too. 

Being reassured in respect of the stanchness of the hull, 
I returned to the fire and proceeded to equip myself for a 
prolonged watch on deck. While I was drawing on a 
great pair of boots I heard a knocking in the after-part of 
the vessel. I supposed she had drifted into a little field 
of broken ice, and that she would go clear presently, and 
I finished arming myself for the weather ; but the knock- 
ing continuing, I went into the cabin, where I heard it 
very plain, and walked as far as the lazarette-hatch, where 
I stood listening. The noises were a kind of irregular 
thumping, accompanied by a peculiar grinding sound. In 
a moment I guessed the truth, rushed on deck, and by the 
dim light in the air saw the long tiller mowing to and fro ! 
The beat of the beam seas had unlocked the frozen bonds 
of the rudder, and there swung the tiller, as though like a 
dog the ship was wagging her tail for joy ! 

The vessel lay along, rolling so as to bring her star- 
board rail to a level with the sea ; her main-deck was 
full of water, and the froth of it, combined with the 
ice that glazed her, made her look like a fabric of 
marble as she swung on the black fold ere it broke into 
snow about her. I seized the tiller and ran it over hard 
a-starboard, and I had not held it in that posture half a 
minute when, to my inexpressible delight, I observed 
that she was paying off. Her head fell slowly from the 
sea ; she lurched drunkenly, and some tons of black water 
rolled over the bulwarks ; she reeled consumedly to lar- 
board, and rose squarely and ponderously to the height 
of the surge that was now abaft the beam. In a few mo- 
ments she was dead before it, the helm amidships, the wind 
blowing sheer over the stern with half its weight seemingly 
gone through the vessel running, the tall seas chasing her 
high stern and floating it upward, till looking forward was 
like gazing down the slope of a hill. 

My heart was never fuller than then. I was half crazy 
with the passion of joy that possessed me. Consider the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


197 


alternations of hope and bitter despair which had been 
crowded into that night ! We may wonder in times of 
security that life should be sweet, and admit the justice of 
the arguments which several sorts of writers, and the poets 
even more than the parsons, use in defence of death. 
But when it comes to the pinch human nature breaks 
through. When the old man in .^sop calls upon Death 
to relieve him, and the skeleton suddenly rises, the old 
man changes his mind, and thinks he will go on trying for 
himself a little longer. I liked to live, and had no mind 
for a wet shroud ; and this getting the schooner before 
the wind, along with the old familiar feeling of the decks 
reeling and soaring and sinking under my feet, was so cor- 
dial an assurance of life that I tell you my heart was full 
to breaking with transport. 

However, I was still in a situation that made prodigious 
demands upon my coolness and wits. The wind blew 
southwest, the schooner was running northeast ; the 
bulk of the icebergs lay on the larboard bow, but there 
were others right ahead, and to starboard, where also lay 
the extremity of the island, though I did not fear that if I 
could escape the rest. It was a dark night ; methinks 
there should have been a young moon curled somewhere 
among the stars, but she was not to be seen. The clouds 
flew dark and hurriedly, and the frosty orbs between were 
too few to throw a light. The ocean ahead and around 
was the duskier for the spectral illumination of the near 
foam and the glimmer of the ice-coated ship. I tested the 
vessel with the tiller, and found she responded but dully ; 
she would be nimbler under canvas, no doubt ; but it was 
enough that she should answer her helm at all. Oh, I 
say, I was mighty thankful, most humbly grateful ! My 
heart was never more honest to its Maker than then. 

She crushed along, pitching pitifully, the dark seas on 
either hand foaming to her quarters, and her rigging 
querulous witli the wind. Had the Frenchman been alive 
to steer the ship, I might have found strength enough for 
my hands in the vigor of my spirit to get the spritsail- 
yard square and chop its canvas loose — nay, I might have 
achieved more than that even ; but I. could not quit the 
tiller now. I reckoned our speed at about four miles an 
hour — as fast as k hearty man could walk. The high 
stern, narrow as it was, helped us ; it was like a mizzen 
in its way ; and all aloft being stout to start witli, and 
greatly thickened yet by ice, the surface up there gave 


198 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


plenty for the gale to catch hold on, and so we drove 
along. 

I could just make out the dim pallid loom of the coast 
of ice upon the starboard beam, and a blob or two of faint- 
ness — most elusive and not to be fixed by the eye staring 
straight at them— on the larboard bow. But it was not 
long before these blobs, as I term them, grew plainer, and 
half a score swam into the dusk over the bowsprit end, and 
resembled dull, small visionary openings in the dark sky 
there, or like stars magnified and dimmed into the merest 
spectral light by mist. I passed the first at a distance of 
a quarter of a mile ; it slid by phantasmally, and another 
stole out right ahead. This I could have gone widely 
clear of by a little shift of the helm ; but while I was in the 
act of starboarding three or four bergs suddenly showed 
on the larboard bow, and I saw that unless I had a mind 
to bring the ship into the trough again I must keep 
straight on. So I steered to bring the berg that was right 
ahead a little on the bow, with a prayer in my soul that 
there might be no low-*lying block in the road for the 
schooner to split upon. It went by within a pistol-shot. 
I was very much accustomed to the sight of ice by this 
time, yet I found myself glancing at this mass with pretty 
near as much wonder and awe as if I had never seen such 
a thing before. It was not above thirty feet high, but its 
shape was exactly that of a horse’s head — the lips sipping 
the sea, the ears cocked, the neck arching to the water. 
You would have said it was some vast courser rising out 
of the deep. The peculiar radiance of ice trembled off it 
like a luminous mist into the dusk. The water boiled 
about its nose, and suggested a frothing caused by the 
monster steed’s expelled breath. Let a fire have been 
kindled to glow red where you looked for the eye, and the 
illusion would have been frightfully grand. 

The poet speaks of the spirits of the vasty deep ; if you 
want to know what exquisite artists they are, enter the 
frozen silences of the south. 

Thus threading my way, I drove before the seas and 
wind, striking a piece of ice but once only, and that a 
small lump, which hit the vessel on the bow, and went 
scraping past, doing the fabric no hurt; but often forced 
to slide perilously close by the bergs, I needed twenty in- 
stead of one pair of eyes. With ice" already on either bow, 
on a sudden it would glimmer out right ahead, and I had 
to form my resolution on the instant. If ever you have 


THE FROZEN P1RA7E. 


199 


been amid a pack of icebergs on a dark night in a high 
sea you will understand my case ; if not, the pen of a Field- 
ing or a Defoe could not put it before you. For what 
magic has ink to express the roaring of swollen waters 
bursting into tall pale clouds against the motionless crys- 
tal heights, the mystery of the configuration of the faint- 
ness under the swarming shadows of the flying night, the 
sudden glares of breaking liquid peaks, the palpitating 
darkness beyond, the plunging and rolling of the ship, 
making her rigging ring upon the air .with the reeling of 
her masts, the gradual absorption of the solid mass of dim 
lustre by the gloom astern, the swift spectral dawn of such 
another light over the bows, with many phantasmal out- 
lines slipping by on either hand, like a procession of giant 
ocean-spectres, travelling white and secretly toward the 
silent dominions of the pole ? 

Half this ice came from the island ; the rest of it was 
formed of bergs too tall to have ever belonged to the north 
end of that great stretch. It took three hours to pass 
clear of them, and then I had to go on clinging to the 
tiller and steering in a most melancholy, famished con- 
dition for another long half-hour, before I could satisfy 
myself that the sea was free. 

But now I was nearly dead with the cold. I had stood 
for five hours at the helm, during all which time my mind 
had been wound up to the fiercest tension of anxiety, and 
my eyes felt as if they were strained out of their sockets 
by the searching of the gloom ahead ; and Nature, having 
done her best, gave out suddenly, and not to have saved 
my life could I have stood at the tiller for another ten 
minutes. 

The gear along the rail was so iron-hard that I could 
not secure the helm with it, so I softened some lashings 
by holding them before the fire ; and finding the schooner 
on my return to be coming round to starboard, I helped 
her by putting the tiller hard a-port and securing it. I 
then went below, built up the fire, lighted my pipe, and 
sat down for warmth and rest. 


200 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

I AM TROUBLED BY THOUGHTS OF THE TREASURE. 

The weight of the wind in the rigging steadied the 
schooner somewhat, and prevented her from rolling loo 
heavily to starboard, while her list corrected her larboard 
rolls. So as I sat below she seemed to me to be making 
tolerably good weather of it. Not much water came 
aboard ; now and again I would hear the clatter of a fall 
forward, but at comfortably long intervals. 

I sat against the dresser with my back upon it, and 
being dead tired must have dropped asleep on a sudden — 
indeed, before I had half smoked my pipe out — and I do 
not believ^e I gave a thought to my situation before I 
slumbered, so wearied was I. The cold awoke me. The 
fire was out, and so was the candle in the lantern, and I 
was in coffin darkness. This the tinder-box speedily 
remedied. I looked at my watch — seven o’clock, as I was 
a sinner ! so that my sleep had lasted between three and 
four hours. 

I went on deck and found the night still black upon the 
sea, the wind the same brisk gale that was blowing when 
1 quit the helm, the sea no heavier, and the schooner tum- 
bling in true Dutch fashion upon it. I looked very earn- 
estly around, but could see no signs of ice. There would 
be daylight presently ; so I went below, lit the fire, and 
got my breakfast, and when I returned the sun was up, 
and the sea visible to its farthest reaches. 

It was a fine wintry piece ; the sea green and running 
in ridges with frothing heads, the sky very pale among 
the dark snow-laden clouds, the sun darting a ray now 
and again, which was swung into the north by the shad- 
ows of the clouds until they extinguished it. Remote in 
the northwest hung the gleam of an iceberg — there was 
nothing else in sight. Yes^something that comforted me 
exceedingly, though it was not very many days ago that a 
like object had heavily scared me — an albatross, a noble 
bird, sailing on the windward close enough to be shot. 
The sight of this living thing was inexpressibly cheering ; 
it put into my head a fancy of ships being at hand, 
thougiits of help and of human companions. In truth, 
my imagination was willing to accept it as the same bird 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


201 


that I had frightened away when in the boat now returned 
to silently reproach me for my treatment of it. Nay, my 
lonely eye, my subdued and suffering heart, might even 
have witnessed the good angel of my life in that solitary 
shape of ocean beauty, and have deemed that, though un- 
seen, it had been with me throughout, and was now made 
visible to my gaze by the light of hope that had broken 
into the darkness of my adventure. 

Well, supposing it so, I should not have been the only 
man who ever scared his good angel away, and found it 
faithful afterward. 

I unlashed the tiller, and got the schooner before the 
wind, and steered until a little before noon, letting her 
drive dead before the sea, which carried her northeast. 
Then securing the helm amidships I ran for the quadrant, 
and while waiting for the sun to show himself, I observed 
that the vessel held herself very steadily before the wind, 
which might have been owing to her high stern and the 
great swell of her sides and her round bottom ; but be the 
cause what it might, she ran as fairly with her helm amid- 
ships as if I had been at the tiller to check her — a most 
fortunate condition of my navigation, for it privileged me 
to get about other work, while at the same time every hour 
was conveying me nearer to the track of ships and farther 
from the bitter regions of the south. 

I got an observation, and made out that the vessel had 
driven about fifteen leagues during the night. She must 
do better than that, thought I ; and when I had eaten some 
dinner I took a chopper, and going on to the forecastle, 
lay out upon the bowsprit, and after beating the spritsail- 
yard block clear of the ice, cut away the gaskets that con- 
fined the sail to the yard, heartily beating the canvas, that 
was like iron, till a clew of it fell. I then came in and 
braced the yard square, and the wind, presently catching 
the exposed part of the sail, blew more of it out, and yet 
more, until there was a good surface showing ; then to a 
sudden hard blast of wind the whole sail flew open with a 
mighty crackling, as though indeed it was formed of ice ; 
but to render it useful I had to haul the sheets aft, which 
I could not manage without the help of the tackles we 
had used in slinging the powder over the side ; so that, 
what with one hinderance and another, the setting of that 
sail took me an hour and a half. 

But had it occupied me all day it would have been 
worth doing. Trifling as it was as a cloth, its effect upon 


202 


THE FROZEH PIRATE. 


the schooner was like that of a cordial upon a fainting 
man. It was not that she sensibly showed nimbler heels 
to it ; its lifting tendency enabled her to ride the under- 
running seas more buoyantly ; and if it increased her 
speed by half a knot an hour it was worth a million to me, 
whose business it was to take the utmost possible advan- 
tage of the southerly gale. 

I returned to the helm, w’arm with the exercise, and 
gazed forward not a little proud of my work. Though 
the sail was eight-and-forty years old and perhaps older, 
it offered as tough and stout a surface to the wind as if it 
was fresh from the sail-maker’s hands, so great are the 
preserving qualities of ice. I looked wistfully at the top- 
sail, but on reflecting that if it should come on to blow 
hard enough to compel me to heave the brig to, she w^ould 
never hull with that canvas aboard, I resolved to let it lie, 
for I could cut away the spritsail if the necessity arose, 
and not greatly regret its loss ; but to lose the top-sail 
would be a serious matter, though if I did not cut it adrift 
it might carry away the mast for me — so, as I say, I would 
not meddle with it. 

Finding that the ship continued to steer herself very 
wxll, andthe better for the spritsail, I thought I would get 
the body of the old Frenchman overboard, and so obtain 
a clear hold for myself, so far as corpses went. I carried 
the lantern into the forecastle, but when I pulled the ham- 
mock off him I confess it was not without a stupid fear 
that I should find him alive. Recollection of his astound- 
ing vitality found something imperishable in that ugly 
anatomy, and though he lay before me as dead and cold 
as stone, I yet had a fancy that the seeds of life were still 
in him, that ’twas only the current of his being that had 
froze, that if I were to thaw him afresh he might recover, 
and that if I buried him I should actually be despatching 
him. 

But though these fancies possessed they did not control 
me. I took his watch and whatever else he had in that 
way, carried him on deck, and dropped him over the side, 
using as little ceremony as he had employed in the dis- 
posal of his shipmates, but affected by very different emo- 
tions ; for there was not only the idea that the vital spark 
was still in him ; I could nut but handle with awe the 
most mysterious corpse the eye had ever viewed — one 
who had lived through a stupor or death-sleep for eight- 
and-forty years, in whom in a few hours Time had com- 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


203 


pressed the wizardry he stretches in others over half a 
century ; who in a night had shrunk from the aspect of 
his prime into the lean, puckered, bleared-eyed, deaf, and 
tottering expression of a hundred years. 

But now he was gone ! The bubbles which rose to the 
plunge of his body were his epitaph ; had they risen blood- 
red they would have better symbolized his life. The al- 
batross stooped to the spot where he had vanished with a 
hoarse salt scream like the laugh of a delirious woman ; 
and the wind, freshening momentarily in a squall, made 
one think of tlie spirit of Nature as eager to purify the air 
of heaven from the taint of the dead pirate’s passage from 
the bulwarks to the water’s surface. 

All that day and through the night that followed the 
schooner drove, rolling and plunging before the seas, into 
the nortlieast, to the pulling of the spritsail. I made sev- 
eral excursions into the forehold, but never could hear 
the sound of water in the vessel. Her sides in places were 
still sheathed in ice ; but this crystal armor was gradually 
dropping off her to the working of her frame in the seas, 
so that, since she was proving herself tight, it was certain 
her stanchhess owed nothing to the glassy plating. I had 
seen some strange craft in my day ; but nothing to beat 
the appearance this old tub of a hooker submitted to my 
gaze as I viewed her from the helm. How so uncouth a 
structure, with her tall stern, flaring bows, fat buttocks, 
sloping masts, forecastle-well, and massive head-timbers 
ever managed to pursue and overhaul a chase was only to 
be unriddled by supposing all that she took to be more 
unwieldy and clumsy than herself. What would a pirate 
of these days, in his clean-lined polacca or arrowy schooner, 
have thought of such an instrument as this for the practice 
of his pretty trade ? The ice aloft still held for her spars 
and rigging the resemblance of glass, and to every sun- 
beam that flashed upon her from between the sweeping 
clouds she would sparkle out into many-colored twinklings, 
marvellously delicate in color, and changing their tints 
twenty times over in a breath through the swiftness of the 
reeling of the spars. 

I should but fatigue you to follow the several little sto- 
ries of these hours one by one — hovv I got my food, 
snarched at sleep, stood at the helm, gazed around the sea- 
line, and the like. Just before sundown I saw a large ice- 
berg in the north, two leagues distant ; no others were in 
sight, but one was enough to make me uneasy, and I spent 


204 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


a very troubled night, repeatedly coming on deck to look 
about me. The schooner steered herself as if a man stood 
at the helm. The spritsail further helped her in this ; for, 
if the curl of a sea under her forefoot brought her to lar- 
board or starboard, the sail forced her back again. Still, 
it was a very surprising, happy quality in her— the next 
best thing to my having a shipmate — and a wonderful 
x'elief to me, who must otherwise have brought her to, 
under a lashed helm, every time I had occasion to leave 
the deck. 

The seaworthiness of the craft, coupled with the rea- 
sonable assurance of presently falling in with a ship, ren- 
dered me so far easy in my mind as to enable me to think 
very frequently of the treasure, and how I was to secure 
it. If I fell in with an enemy’s cruiser or a privateer I 
must expect to be stripped. This would be the fortune of 
war, and I must take my chance. My concern did not lie 
that way — how was I to protect this property, that was 
justly mine, against my own countrymen, suppose I had 
the good fortune to carry the schooner safely into English 
waters ? I had a brother-in-law, Jeremiah Mason, Esq., a 
Turkey merchant in a small way of business, whose office 
was in the city of London, and if I could manage to con- 
vey the treasure secretly to him he would, I knew, find me 
a handsome account in his settlement of this affair. But 
it was impossible to strike out a plan. I must wait, and 
attend the course of events. Yet riches being . things 
which fever the coldest imaginations, I could not look 
ahead without excitement and irritability of fancy. I 
should reckon it a hard fate, indeed, after my cruel expe- 
riences, my freeing the vessel from the ice, my sailing her 
through some thousands of miles of perilous seas, and 
arriving finally in safety, to be dispossessed of what was 
strictly mine — as much mine as if I had fished it up from 
the bottom of the sea, where it must otherwise have lain 
till the crack of doom. 

I remember that, among other ideas, it entered my head 
to tell the master of the first ship I met, if she were British, 
the whole story of my adventure — to acquaint him with 
the treasure, to offer to transship it and myself to his vessel, 
and abandon the schooner, and to propose a handsome re- 
ward for his offices. But I could not bring my mind to 
trust any stranger with so great a secret. The mere cir- 
cumstance of the treasure not being mine, in the sense of 
my having earned it — of its being piratical plunder, and 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


205 


as much one’s as another’s — might dull the edge even of 
a fair-dealing conscience, and expose me to the machina- 
tions of a heavily tempted mind. 

Therefore, though I had no plan, I was resolved at all 
hazards to stick to the schooner ; and, with a view to pro- 
viding against the curiosity or rummaging of any persons 
who should come aboard, I fell to the following work 
after getting my breakfast. I hung lanterns in the run 
and hatchways, and cabin to enable me to pass easily to 
and fro ; I tlien emptied one of the chests in my cabin, 
and carried it to where the treasure was. The chest I 
filled nearly three parts full with money, jewellery, etc., 
which sank the contents of the other chests to the depth 
I wanted. I then fetched a quantity of small-arms, such 
as pistols and hangers and cutlasses, and filled up the 
chests with them, first placing a thickness of canvas over 
the money and jewellery, that no glitter might show 
through. To improve the deception I brought another 
chest to the run, and wholly filled it with cutlasses, pow- 
der-horns, pistols, and the like, and so fixed it that it must 
be the first to come to hand. My cunning amounted to 
this : that suppose the run to be rummaged, the contents 
of the first chest were sure to be turned out, but, on the 
other chests being opened, and what they appeared to 
contain observed, it was as likely as not that the rumma- 
gers would be satisfied they were arm-chests, and quit 
meddling with them. 

Here now might I indulge in a string of reflections on 
the troubles and anxieties which money brings, quote from 
Juvenal and other poets, and hold myself up to your 
merriment by a contemptuous exhibition of myself, a 
lonely sailor, laboring to conceal his gold from imaginary 
knaves, toiling in the dark depth of the vessel, and never 
heeding that even while he so worked his ship might split 
upon some half-tide rock of ice, and founder with him and 
his treasures too, and so on, and so on. But the fact is I 
wns not a fool. Here was money enough to set me up as 
a fine gentleman for life, and I meant to save it and keep 
it too, if I could. A man on his death-bed, a man in such 
peril that his end is certain, can afford to be sentimental. 
He is going where money is dross indeed, and he is in a 
posture when to moralize upon human greed and the 
vanity of wishes and riches becomes him. But would not 
a man whose health is hearty, and who hopes to save his 
life, be worse off than a sheep in the matter of brains, not 


2o6 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


to keep a firm grip of Fortune’s hand when she extended 
it ? I know I was very well pleased with my morning’s 
work when I had accomplished it, and had no mind to 
qualify my satisfaction by melancholy and romantic mus- 
ings on my condition and the uncertainty of the future. 
This was possibly owing to the fineness of the weather ; a 
heavy black gale from the north would doubtless have 
given a very different turn to my humors. 

The wind at dawn had weakened and come into the 
west. There was a strong swell — indeed there always is 
in this ocean — but the seas ran small. The sky looked 
like marble, with its broad spreadings of high white clouds 
and the veins of blue sky between. I wished to make all 
the northing that was possible, but there was nothing to 
be done in that way with the spritsail alone. Had not 
the capstan been frozen, I should have tried to get the 
main-sail upon the ship, but without the aid of machinery 
I was helpless. So, with helm amidships, the schooner 
drove languidly along with her head due east, lifting as 
ponderously as a line-of-battle ship to the floating launches 
of the high swell, and the albatross hung as steadfastly in 
the wake of my lonely ocean-path as though it had been 
some messenger sent by God to watch me into safety. 


CHAPTER XXVH. 

I ENCOUNTER A WHALER. 

I had been six days and nights at sea, and the morning 
of the seventh day had come. With the exception of one 
day of strong southwesterly winds, which ran me some- 
thing to the northward, the weather had been fine — bit- 
terly cold, indeed, but bright and clear. In this time I 
had run a distance of about six hundred and fifty miles to 
the east, and with no other cloths upon the schooner than 
her spritsail. 

I confess, as the hours passed away and nothing hove 
into view, I grew dispirited and restless ; but, on the other 
hand, I was comforted by the bright weather and the favor- 
able winds, and particularly by the vessel’s steering herself, 
which enabled me to get rest, to keep myself warm with 
the fire, and to dress my food, yet ever pushing onward 
(however slowly) into the navigated regions of this sea. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


207 


On the morning of the seventh day I came on deck, 
having slept since four o’clock. The wind was icy keen, 
pretty brisk, about west by south ; the movement in the 
sea was from the south, and rolled very grandly ; there 
was a fog that way, too, that hid the horizon, bringing the 
ocean line to within a league of the schooner ; "but the 
other quarters swept in a dark, clear, blue line against 
the sky, and there was such a clarity of atmosphere as 
made the distances appear infinite. 

I went below and lighted the fire and got my breakfast, 
all very leisurely, and when I was done I sat down and 
smoked a pipe. It was so keen on deck I had no mind to 
leave the fire ; and as all was well, I lounged through the 
best part of two hours in the cook-house, when, thinking 
it was now time to take another survey of the scene, 1 
went on deck. 

On looking over the larboard bulwark rail, the first 
thing I saw was a ship about two miles off. She was on 
the larboard tack under courses, top-sails, and maintop- 
gallant sail, heading as if to cross my bows. The sun- 
shine made her canvas look as white as snow against the 
skirts of the body of vapor that had trailed a little to lee- 
ward of her, and her black hull flashed as though she dis- 
charged a broadside every time she rose wet to the north- 
ern glory out of the hollow of the swell with a curl of 
silver at her cut-water. 

My heart came into my throat ; I seemed not to breathe ; 
not to have saved my life could I have uttered a cry, so 
amazed and transported was I by this unexpected appari- 
tion. I stared like one in a dream, and my head felt as if 
all the blood in my body had surged into it. But then, all 
on a sudden, there happened a revulsion of feeling. Sup- 
pose she should prove a privateer — a French war vessel — 
of a nation hostile to my own ? Thought so wrought in me 
that I trembled like an idiot in a fright. The telescope 
was too weak to resolve her — I could do better with my 
eyes ; and I stood at the bulwarks gazing and gazing, as if 
she were the spectre ship of the Scandinavian legend. 

Ther^were flags below, and I could have hoisted a sig- 
nal of distress ; but to what purpose ? If the appearance 
of the schooner did not sufficiently illustrate her condition, 
there was certainly no virtue in the language and declar- 
ations of bunting to exceed her own mute assurance. I 
watched her with a passion of anxiety, never doubting her 
intention to speak to me — at all events to draw close and 


2o8 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


look at me — wholly concerning myself with her character. 
Tl)e swell made us both dance, and the blue brows of the 
rollers would often hide her to the height of her rails ; but 
we were closing each other middling fast — she travelling 
at seven and I at four miles in the hour— and presently I 
could see that she carried a number of boats. 

A whaler, thought I ; and after a little I was sure of it by 
perceiving the rings over her top-gallant rigging for the 
lookout to stand in. 

On being convinced of this I ran below for a shawl that 
was in my cabin, and, jumping on to the bulwarks, stood 
flourishing it for some minutes to let them know that there 
was a man aboard. She luffed to deaden her way that I 
might swim close, and as we approached each other I ob- 
served a crowd of heads forward looking at me, and several 
men aft all staring intently. 

A man scrambled on to the, rail, and with an arm clasp- 
ing a backstay hailed me : 

“ Schooner ahoy ! " he bawled, with a strong nasal twang 
in his cry. “What ship’s that ? ” 

“The Boca del Dragon,” I shouted back. 

“Where are you from, and where are you bound to ?” 

“ I have been locked up in the ice,” I cried, “and am in 
want of help. What ship are you ?” 

“The Susan Tucker, whaler, of New Bedford, twenty- 
seven months out,” he returned. “Where in creation got 
you that hooker ? ” 

“ I’m the only man aboard,” I cried, “ and have no boat. 
Send to me in tlie name of God, and let the master come ! ” 

He waved his hand, bawling, “ Put your helm down — 
you’re forging ahead ! ” and so saying dismounted. 

I immediately cast the tiller adrift, put it hard over, and 
secured it, then jumped on to the bulwarks again to watch 
them. She was Yankee beyond doubt ; I had rather met 
my own countrymen ; but, next to a British, I would have 
cliosen an American ship to meet. Somehow, despite the 
Frenchman, I felt myself to have been alone throughout 
my adventure ; and so sore was the effect of that solitude 
upon my spirits that it seemed twenty years since I had 
seen a ship, and since I had held commune with my own 
species. I was terribly agitated, and shook in every limb. 
Life must have been precious always ; but never before 
had it appeared so precious as now, while I gazed at that 
homely ship, with her main topsail to the mast, swinging 
stately upon the swell, the faces of the seamen plain, the 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


209 


smoke of her galley-fire breaking from the chimney, the 
sounds of groaning blocks and creaking parrals stealing 
from her. Such a fountain of joy broke out of my heart 
that my whole being was flooded with it ; and had that mood 
lasted I believe I should have exposed the treasure in the 
run, and invited all the men of the whaler to share in it 
with me. 

They stared fixedly — little wonder that they should be 
astounded by such an appearance as my ship exhibited ! 
One of the several boats which hung at her davits was 
lowered, the oars flashed, and presently she was near 
enough to be hit with a biscuit ; but when there the mas- 
ter, as I supposed him to be, who was steering, sung out, 
“’Vast rowing!” the boat came to a stand, and her peo- 
ple to a man stared at me with their chins upon their 
shoulders, as if I had been a fiend. It was plain as a pike- 
staff that they were frightened, and that the superstitions 
of the forecastle were hard at work in them while they 
viewed me. They looked a queer company ; two were 
negroes, the others pale faced bearded men, wrapped up 
in clothes to the aspect of scarecrows. The fellow who 
steered had a face as long as a wet hammock, and it was 
lengthened yet to the eye by a beard like a goat’s hanging 
at the extremity of his chin. 

He stood up — a tall, lank figure, with legs like a pair of 
compasses — and hailed me afresh ; but the high swell, 
regular as the swing of a pendulum, interposed its brow 
between him and me, so that at one moment he was a 
sharply-lined figure against the sky of the horizon, and the 
next he and his boat and crew were sheer gone out of 
sight, and this made an exchange of sentences slow and 
troublesome. 

“ Say, master,” he sung out, “ what d’ye say the schoon- 
er’s name is ? ” 

“ The Boca del Dragon,” I replied. 

“And who you^ matey?” 

“ An English sailor, who has been cast away on an island 
of ice,” I answered, talking very shortly, that the replies 
might follow the questions before the swell sank him. 

“Ay, ay,” says he, “ that’s very well ; but when was you 
cast away, bully ? ” 

I gave him the date. 

“ That’s not a nsonth ago,” cried he. 

“ It’s long enough, whatever the time,” said I. 

Here the crew fell a-talking, turning from one another 
14 


210 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


to Stare at me, and the negroes’ eyes showed as big as 
saucers in the dismay of their regard. 

“See here, master,” sung out the long man, “if you 
ha’n’t been cast away more’n a month, how come you 
clothed as men went dressed a century sin’, hey?” 

The reason of their misgivings flashed upon me. It was 
not so much the schooner as my appearance. The truth 
was, my clothes having been wetted, I had ever since been 
wearing such thick garments as 1 met with in the cabin, 
keeping my legs warm with jack-boots, and I had become 
so used to the garb that I forgot I had it on. You will 
judge, then, that I must have presented a figure very 
nicely calculated to excite the wonder and apprehension 
of a body of men whose superstitious instincts were 
already sufficiently fluttered by the appearance of the 
schooner, when I tell you that, in addition to the jack- 
boots and a great fur cap, my costume was formed of a 
red plush waistcoat laced with silver, purple breeches, a 
coat of frieze with yellow braiding and huge cuffs, and the 
cloak that I had taken from the body of Mendoza. 

“ Captain,” cried I, “ if so be you are the captain, in the 
name of God and humanity come aboard, sir!” Here I 
had to wait till he reappeared. “My story is an extraor- 
dinary one. You have nothing to fear. I am a plain 
English sailor ; my ship was the Laughing Mary, bound 
in ballast from Callao to the Cape.” Here I had to wait 
again. “Pray, sir, come aboard. There is nothing to 
fear. I am alone— in grievous distress, and in want of 
help. Pray come, sir I ” 

There was so little of the goblin in this appeal that it 
resolved him. The crew hung in the wind, but he ad- 
dressed them peremptorily. I heard him damn them for 
a set of curs, and tell them that if they put him aboard 
they might lie off till he was ready to return, where they 
would be safe, as tlie. devil could not swim ; and presently 
tliey buckled to their oars again, and the boat came along- 
side. The long man, watching his chance, sprang with 
great agility into the chains, and stepped on deck. I ran 
up to him and seized his hand with both mine. 

“ Sir,” cried I, speaking with difficulty, so great was the 
tumult of my spirits and the joy and gratitude that swelled 
my heart, “I thank you a thousand times over for this 
visit. 1 am in the most helpless condition that can be im- 
agined. I am not astonished that you should have been 
startled by the appearance of this vessel and by the figure 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


211 


I make in these clothes ; but, sir, you will be much more 
amazed when you have heard my story." 

He eyed me steadfastly, examining me very earnestly 
from my boots to my cap, and then cast a glance around 
him before he made any reply to my address. He had the 
gauntness, sallowness of complexion, and deliberateness 
of manner peculiar to the people of New England ; and 
though he was a very ugly, lank, uncouth man, I protest 
he was as fair in my sight as if he had been the ambrosial 
angel described by Milton. 

“Well, cook my gizzard,” he exclaimed, presently, 
through his nose, and after another good look at me and 
along the decks and up aloft, “ if this ain’t mi-raculous, 
tew ! Burned if we didn’t take this hooker for some ghost 
ship riz from the sea, in charge of a merman rigged out to 
fit her age. Y’are all alone, air you ? ” 

“ All alone,” said I. 

“ Broach me every barrel aboard if ever I see sich a 
vessel,” he cried, his astonishment rising with the search- 
ing glances he directed aloft and alow. “ How old be 
she ? ” 

“ She was cast away in seventeen hundred and fifty- 
three,” said I. 

“Well, I’m durned ! She’s froze hard, sirree ! I reckon 
she’ll want a hot sun to thaw her. Split me, mister, if she 
ain’t worth sailing home as a show-box.” 

I interrupted his ejaculations by asking him to step be- 
low, where we could sit warm while I related my story ; 
and I asked him to invite his boat’s crew into the cabin 
that I might regale them with a bowl of such liquor as, I 
ventured to say, had never passed their lips in this life. 
On this he went to the side, and, hailing the men, ordered 
all but one to come aboard and drink to the health of the 
lonesome sailor they had come across. The word “ drink ” 
acted like a charm ; they instantly hauled upon the painter 
and brought the boat to the chains and tumbled over the 
side, one of the negroes remaining in her. They fell to- 
gether in a body, and surveyed me and the ship with a 
hundred marks of astonishment. 

“ My lads,” said I', my rig is a strange one, but I’ll ex- 
plain all shortly. The clothes I was cast away in are be- 
low, and I’ll show you them. I’m no spectre, but as real 
as you ; though I have gone through so much that, if I am 
not a ghost, it is no fault of old Ocean, but owing to the 
mercy of God. My name is Paul Rodney, and I’m a na- 


212 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


live of London. You, sir,” says I, addressing the long 
man, “ are, I presume, the master of the Susan Tucker ? ” 

“At your sarvice — Josiah Tucker is my name, and that 
ship is my wife, Susan.” 

“ Captain Tucker, and you, men, will you please step 
below?” says I. “The weather promises fair; I have 
much to tell, and there is that in the cabin which will give 
you patience to hear me.” 

I descended the companion-stairs, and they all followed, 
making the interior that had been so long silent ring with 
their heavy tread, while from time to time a gruff, hoarse 
whisper broke from one of them. But superstition lay 
strong upon their imagination, and they were awed and 
quiet. The daylight came down the hatch, but for all that 
the cabin was darksome. 

I waited till the last man had entered, and then said, 
“ Before we settle down to a bowl and a yarn, captain, I 
should like to show you this ship. It’ll save me a deal of 
description and explanation if you will be pleased to take 
a view.” 

“ Lead on, mister,” said he ; “but we shall have to snap 
our eyelids and raise fire in that way — for durned if I, for 
one, can see in the dark.” 

I fetched three or four lanterns, and lighting the candles 
distributed them among the men, and then in a procession, 
headed by the captain and me, we made the rounds. I had 
half cleared the arms-room ; but there were weapons 
enough left, and they stared at them like yokels in a booth. 
I showed them the cook-house and the forecastle, where 
the deck was still littered with clothes and chests and ham- 
mocks, and after carrying them aft to the cabins gave them 
a sight of the hold. I never saw men more amazed. They 
filled the vessel with their exclamations. They never of- 
fered to touch anything, being too much awed, but 
stepped about with their heads uncovered, as quietly as 
they could, as though they had been in a vault, and the 
influence of strange and terrifying memorials was upon 
them. I also showed them the clothes I had come away 
from the Laughing Mary in ; and that I might submit 
such an aspect to them as should touch their sympathies, I 
whipped off the cloak and put on my own pilot-cloth coat. 

There being nothing more to see I led them to the 
cook-room, and there brewed a great hearty bowl of 
brandy-punch, which I seasoned with lemon, sugar, and 
spices into as relishable a draught as my knowledge in 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


213 


that way could compass, and giving every man a pannikin 
bid him dip and welcome, myself first drinking to them 
with a brief speech — yet not so brief but that I broke 
down toward the close of it, and ended with a dry sob or 
two. 

They would have been unworthy their country and 
their calling not to have been touched by my natural 
manifestion of emotion ; besides, the brandy was an in- 
comparably fine spirit, and the very perfume of the steam- 
ing bowl was sufficient to stimulate the kindly qualities of 
sailors who had been locked up for months in a greasy old 
ship, with no diviner smells about them than the stink of 
the try-works. The captain, standing up, called upon his 
men to drink to me, promising me that he was very glad 
to have fallen in with my schooner, and then looking at 
the others made a sign ; whereupon they all fixed their 
eyes upon me, and drank as one man, everyone emptying 
his pot and inverting it as a proof, and fetching a rousing 
sigh of satisfaction. 

This ceremony ended, I began my story, beginning with 
the loss of the Laughing Mary, and proceeding step by 
step. I told them of the dead body of Mendoza, but said 
nothing about the Frenchman and the mate and the Portu- 
guese boatswain, lest I should make them afraid of the 
vessel, and so get no help to work her. As to acquaint- 
ing them with my recovery of Tassard, after his stupor of 
eight-and-forty years, I should have been mute on that 
head in any case ; for so extraordinary a relation could, 
from such people, have earned me but one of two opinions 
— either that I was mad and believed in an impossibility, 
or that I was a rogue and dealt in magic, and to be vehe- 
mently shunned. Yet there were wonders enough in my 
story without this, and I recited it to a running commen- 
tary of all sorts of queer Yankee exclamations. 

There were seven seamen and the captain, and I made 
nine, and we pretty nearly filled the cook-room. ’Twas a 
scene to be handled by a Dutch brush. We were a shaggy 
company, in several kinds of rude attire ; and the crimson 
light of the furnace, whose playing flames darted shadows 
through the steady 'light of the lanterns, caused us to ap- 
pear very wild. The mariners’ eyes gleamed redly as 
their glances roved roiiiid the place ; and had you come 
suddenly among us, I believe you would have thought this 
band of pale, fire-touched, hairy men, with the one ebon 
visage among them, rendered the vessel a vast deal more 


214 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


ghostly than ever she could have shown when sailing 
along with me alone on board. 

They were a good deal puzzled, when I told them of the 
mines I had made and sprung in the ice. They reckoned 
the notion fine, but could not conceive how I had, single- 
handed, broken out the powder barrels, got them over the 
side, and fixed them. 

“ Why,” said I, “’twas slow, heavy work, of course ; but 
a man who labors for his life will do marvellous things. 
It is like the jump of a hunted stag.” 

“True for you,” says the captain. “A swim of two 
miles spends me in pleasurin’ ; but I’ve swum eight mile 
to save my life, and stranded fresh as a new-hooked cod. 
What’s your intentions, sir ? ” 

“To sail the schooner home,” said I, “ if I can get help. 
She’s too good to abandon. She’ll fetch money in Eng- 
land.” 

“ Ay, as a show.” 

“Yes, and as a coalman. Rig her modernly, and carry 
your forecastle deck into the head, captain, and she’s a 
brave ship, fit for a Baltimore eye.” 

He stroked down the hair upon his chin. 

“Dip, captain ; dip, my lads, there’s enough of this to 
drown' ye in the hold,” said I, pointing to the bowl. 
“ Come, this is a happy meeting for me ; let it be a merry 
one. Captain, I drink to the Susan Tucker.” 

“Sir, your servant. Here’s to your sweetheart, be she 
wife or maid. Bill, jump on deck and take a look round. 
See to the boat.” 

One of the men went out. 

“Captain,” said I, “you are a full ship,’* 

“That’s so.” 

“ Bound home.” 

“ Right away.” 

“ You have men enough and to spare. Lend me three 
of your hands to help me to the Thames, and I’ll repay 
you thus : there should be near a hundred tons of wine 
and brandy, of exquisite vintage, and choice with age be- 
yond language, in the hold. Take what you will of that 
freight ; there’ll be ten times the value of your lay in your 
pickings, modest as you may prove. Help yourself to the 
clothes in the cabin and forecastle ; they will turn to ac- 
count. For the men you wdll spare, and who will volun- 
teer to help me, this will be my undertaking : the ship and 
all that is in her to be sold on her arrival, and the proceeds 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


215 


equally divided. Shalhve call it a thousand pounds apiece ? 
Captain, she’s well found — her inventory would make a 
list as long as you ; I’d name a bigger sum, but here she 
is — you shall overhaul her hold and judge for yourself.” 

I watched him anxiously. No man spoke, but every 
eye w’as upon him. He sat pulling down the hair on his 
chin, then jumping upon a sudden and extending his hand, 
he cried, “ Shake ! — it’s a bargain, if the men’ll jine.” 

“ I’ll jine ! ” exclaimed a man. 

There was a pause. 

“ And me,” said the negro. 

I was glad of this, and looked earnestly at the others. 

“ Is she tight ?” said a man. 

“ As a bottle,” said I. 

They fell silent again. 

“Joe Wilkinson and Washington Cromwell — them two 
jines,” said the captain. “ Bullies, he wants a third. 
Don’t speak all together.” 

The man named “ Bill ” at this moment returned to the 
cook-room and reported all well above. My offer was re- 
peated to him, but he shook his head. 

“ This is the Horn, mates,” said he. “ There’s a deal o’ 
water ’tween this and the Thames. How do she sail ? No 
man knows.” 

“I want none but willing men,” said 1. “Americans 
make as good sailors as the English. What an English 
seaman can face any of you can. There is another negro 
in the boat. Will you let him step aboard, captain ? He 
may join.” 

A man was sent to take his place. Presently he arrived, 
and I gave him a cup of punch. 

“’Splain the business to him, sir,” said the captain, fill- 
ing his pannikin ; “his name is Billy Pitt.” 

I did so ; and when I told him that Washington Crom- 
\vell had offered, lie instantly said, “All right, massa. I’ll 
be ob yah.” 

This was exactly what I wanted, and had there been a 
tliird negro. I’d have preferred him to the white man. 

“ But how are you going to navigate this craft home 
with three men ?” said the man Bill to me. 

“ There’ll be four — we shall do. The fewer the more 
dollars, hey, Wilkinson?” 

He grinned, and Cromwell broke into a ventral laugh. 

They seemed very well satisfied, and so was I. 


2i6 


THE FROZEN PJRATE, 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

I STRIKE A BARGAIN WITH THE YANKEE. 

The captain put his cap down ; the bowl was empty ; I 
offered to brew another jorum, but he thanked me and said 
no, adding significantly that he would have no moxo. here 
" — iDy which he meant that he would brew for himself in 
his own ship anon. The drink had made him cheerful 
and good-natured. He recommended that we should goon 
deck and set about transshipping while the weatlier iield ; 
for he was an old hand in these seas, and never trusted tlie 
sky longer than a quarter of an hour. 

“ This here list,” says he, “ wants remedying, and that’ll 
follow our easin’ of the hold.” 

“Yes,” said I, “and I should be mighty thankful if some 
of your men would see all clear aloft for me, that we might 
start witli running rigging that’ll travel, capstans that’ll 
revolve and sails that’ll spread.” 

“ Oh, we’ll manage that for you,” said he. “ Tru-ly she’s 
been bad froze — very bad froze. Durned if ever I see a 
worse freeze.” 

So saying, he called to Bill, who seemed the principal man 
of the boat’s crew, and gave him some directions, and im- 
mediately afterward ail the men entered the boat and 
rowed away to the ship. 

While they were absent I carried the captain into the 
hold and left liim to overhaul it. I told him that all tlie 
spirits, provisions, and the like were in the hold and lazar- 
ette, which was true enough — wanting to keep him out of 
the run — though, thanks to the precaution I had taken, I 
was in no fear even if he should penetrate so deep aft. 
Before he came out five-and-twenty stout fellows arrived 
in four boats from the ship, and when we went on deck we 
found them going the rounds of the vessel, scraping tlie 
guns to get a view of them, peering down the companion, 
overhauling the forecastle-well, as I call the hollow beyond 
the forecastle, and staring aloft with their faces full of 
grinning wonder. The captain sang out to them, and 
they all mustered aft. 

“Now, lads,” said he, “there is a big job before you— a 
big job for Cape Horn, I mean ; and you’ll have to slip 
through it as if you was grease. When done there’ll be a 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


217 


carouse, and I’ll warrant ye all such a sup that the most 
romantic among ye’ll never cast another pining thought 
in the direction o’ your mother’s milk.” 

Having delivered this preface, he divided the men into 
two gangs — one, under the boatswain, to attend to the 
rigging, clear the canvas of the ice, get the pumps and 
the capstans to work, and see all ready for getting sail on 
the schooner ; the other, under the second mate, to get 
tackles aloft and break out the cargo, taking care to trim 
ship while so doing. 

They fell to their several jobs with a will. ’Tis the 
habit of our countrymen to sneer at the Americans as 
sailors, affirming that if ever they win a battle at sea it is 
by the help of British renegades. But this I protest : 
after witnessing the smartness of those Yankee whalemen, 
I would sooner charge the English than the Americans 
with lubberliness, came the nautical merits of the two 
nations ever before me to decide upon. They had the 
hatches open, tackles aloft, and men at work below while 
the marinej*s of other countries would have been standing 
looking on and “jawing” upon the course to be taken. 
Some overran the fabric aloft, clearing, cutting away, 
pounding, making the ice fly in storms ; others sweated 
the capstans till they clanked ; others fell to the pumps, 
working with hammers and kettles of boiling water. The 
wondrous old schooner was never busier — no, not in the 
heyday of her flag, when her guns were blazing and her 
people yelling. 

I doubt whether even a man-of-war could have given 
this work the despatch the whaler furnished. She had 
eight boats and fifty men, and every boat was afloat and 
alongside us ready to carry what she could to the ship. I 
wished to help, but the captain would not let me do so ; 
he kept me walking and talking, asking me 'scores of 
questions about the schooner, and all so shrewd that, 
without appearing reserved, I professed to know little. 
The great show of clothes puzzled him. He also asked if 
the crucifix in the cabin was silver. I said I believed it 
was; fetched it and asked him to accept it, saying that if 
he would giv'e me the smallest of his boats for it I should 
be very much obliged. 

“ Oh yes,” says he, “ you can have a boat — the men 
would not sail with you without a boat ; ” and after weigh- 
ing the crucifix without the least exhibition of veneration 
in his manner, he put it in his pocket, saying he knew a 


2i8 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


man who would give him a couple of hundred dollars for 
the thing on his telling him that the Pope had blessed it. 

“Ay, but,” says I, “how do you know the Pope has 
blessed it ? ” 

“ Then Fll bless it,” cried he ; “why, am I cold Johnny- 
cake, that my blessings ain’t as good as another man’s ?” 

I was glad I had hidden the black flag — I mean that I 
had stowed it away in the cabin of the Frenchman after 
he was dead. The Yankee needed but the sight to make 
his suspicions of the original character of the Boca del 
Dragon flame up ; and you may suppose that I was ex- 
ceedingly anxious he should not be sure that the schooner 
had been a pirate, lest he might have been tempted to 
scrutinize her rather more closely than would have been 
agreeable to me. 

He asked me if I had met with any money in her ; and 
I answered evasively that in searching the dead man on 
the rocks, I had discovered a few pieces in his pocket, but 
that I had left them, being much too melancholy and con- 
vinced of my approaching end to meddle with such a use- 
less commodity. From time to time he would quit me to 
go to the hatch and sing down orders to the second mate 
in the hold. How many casks he meant to take I did not 
know ; when he asked me how much I would give, I re- 
plied, “ Leave me enough to keep me ballasted ; that will 
satisfy me.” 

The high swell demanded caution, but they managed 
wonderfully well. They never swung more than three 
casks into a boat, and with this cargo she would row away 
to the ship that lay hove-to close, and the men in her 
hoisted the casks aboard. 

The wind remained light till half-past three ; it then 
freshened a bit. Though all hands had knocked off at 
noon to get dinner — and a fine meal I gave them of ham, 
tongue, beef, biscuits, wine, and brandy — by half-past three 
they had eased the hold of ten boat-loads of casks, besides 
clearing out the whole of the clothes from the forecastle, 
along with as much of the bedding as we did not require ; 
and I began to think that my Yankee intended to leave 
me a clean ship to carry home, though I durst not remon- 
strate. Yet was my turn handsomely served too. The 
pumps had been cleared and tried, and found to work 
well, and-^which was glad news to me — the well found 
dry. The running rigging had been overhauled, and it 
travelled handsomely. The sails had been loosed and 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


219 


hoisted and lowered again, and the canvas found in good 
condition. The jibboom had been run out, and the stays 
set up. The stock of fresh water had been examined and 
found plentiful, and the casks in the head brought out and 
secured on the main-deck. In short, the American boat- 
swain had worked with the judgment and care of a master- 
rigger— of a great artist in ropes, booms, and sails — and 
the schooner was left to my hands as fit for any navigation 
as the whaler that rose and fell on our quarter. 

But, as I have said, at half-past three in the afternoon, 
the breeze began to sit in dark curls upon the water, and 
there was evidence enough in the haziness in the west, 
and in the loom of the shoulders of vapor in the dark-blue 
obscure there, to warrant a sackful for this capful pres- 
ently. 

“ 1 reckon,” says the captain to me, after looking into 
the west, “ that we’d best knock off now. There’s snow 
and wind yonder, and we’d better see all snug while there’s 
time.” 

He called to one of the men to tell the second mate to 
come up from below and get the hatches on, and bringing 
me to the rail he pointed to a boat, and asked if that would 
do ? I said yes, and thanked him heartily for the gift, 
which was handsome, I must say — the boat being a very 
good one, though, to be sure, he had got many times its 
value out of the schooner ; and a party of men were forth- 
with told off to get the boat hoisted and stowed. 

“ Now, Mr. Rodney,” said the captain, standing in the 
gangway, ‘‘how can I serve you further?” 

“Sir,” said I, “you are very obliging. Two things I 
stand sadly in need of — a chart of these waters and a 
chronometer.” 

“ I’ll send you a chart,” said he, “ that’ll carry you as high 
as San Roque ; but I’ve only got one chronometer, sir, and 
can’t spare him.” 

“ Well then,” said I, “ if when you get aboard you’ll give 
me the time by your chronometer. I’ll set my watch by it ; 
but I’ll thank you very much for the chart. The tracings 
below are as shapeless as the moon setting in a fog.” 

“ You shall have the chart,” said he, and then called 
to Wilkinson and the two negroes. 

“ Lads,” said he, “you’re quite content, I hope ?” 

They answered yes. ‘ 

“You’ve all three a claim upon me for the amount of 
what’s owing ye,” said he, “and when you turn up at New 


220 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


Bedford you shall have it— that’s square. I see four or 
five thousand dollars a man on this job, if so be as ye don’t 
broach too thirstily as you go along. Mr. Rodney, Joe 
here’s a steady, ’spectable man, and’ll make you a good 
mate. Cromwell and Billy Pitt are black only in their 
hides ; all else’s as good as white.” 

He then shook me by the hand, and, calling a farew’ell 
to Wilkinson and the negroes, scrambled into the chains 
and dropped into his boat, very highly satisfied, I make no 
doubt, with the business he had done that day. 

A boat’s crew were left behind to help us to make sail. 
But the weather looking somewhat wild in the west with 
the red light of the sun among the clouds there, and the 
dark heave of the swell running into a sickly crimson 
under the sun and then flowing out dusky again, I got 
them to treble-reef the mailsail and hoist it, and then 
thanking them advised them to be off. We gave them a 
cheer when they started, which they returned, and then, 
putting Cromwell to the tiller, I went forward with the 
others and set the topsail and fore staysail (the spritsail 
lying furled), which would be show enough of canvas till 
I saw what the weather was like. I kept the topsail aback, 
waiting for a boat to arrive with my chart, and in a few 
minutes the boat we had cheered returned with what I 
wanted. 

Meanwhile they were shortening sail on the whaler; 
and, though she was no beauty, yet I tell you I found her 
as picturesque as any ship I had ever beheld as she lay 
with her main-top gallant sail clewed up, her topsail yards 
on the caps, and the heads of men knotting the reef-points 
showing black over the white cloths, her hull floating up 
out of the hollow and flinging a wet orange gleam to the 
west, a tumble of creamy foam about her to her rolling — 
shadows like the passage of phantom hands hurrying over 
her sails to the swaying of her masts, and the swelling sea 
darkling from her into the east. 

I hollowed my hands, and hailing the captain, Avho was 
on the quarter-deck, asked him for the time by his chron- 
ometer. He flourished his arm and disappeared, and 
presently returning shouted to know if I was ready. I 
put the key in my watch and answered yes, and then he 
gave me the time. My watch, though antique, was a 
noble piece of mechanism, and, I* ha;ve little doubt, as 
trustworthy as his chronometer. But I was careful to let 
it lie snug in my hand. I did not want the negro at the 


THE FROZEN F IRATE. 


221 


tiller nor the others to see it. They would wonder that so 
fine a jewelled piece as this should be in the possession 
of the second mate of a little brig, and it was my business 
to manage that they never should have cause to wonder 
at anything in that way. 

There was nothing to detain us now, and I went with 
Wilkinson to the topsail braces and hauled the yards 
round ; but before she could gather way, it flashed upon 
me that the old steering-card in the binnacle might be 
wrong. Strange that tiie thought had not before occurred 
to me ; but then, indeed, I had had fifty things to think 
of, besides being under a great hurry of spirits, such as 
might easily account for more oversights than one. To 
test my compass I ought to have got the captain to send 
one from the ship, and compared mine by his. But all his 
boats were hoisted and griped ; his men w’ere full of busi- 
ness ; I did not like to trouble him again, and I durst not 
venture the launching of our own boat in the face of that 
western heaven. 

I sprang on to the rails. 

“ Ho, the ship ahoy ! ” 

The captain came to the side, and answered, “ Hil- 
loh.” 

“ I doubt my compass,” I roared, “ and forgot to ask 
you to let me compare it. But if you’ll give me the bear- 
ings of the sun yonder,” that was just then a dusky-purple 
rayless disk, two or three degrees above the horizon, “ I 
shall be better able to make shift.” 

He instantly understood me, and I saw him go to his 
binnacle, remov^e the hood, and put the sharp of his hand 
over the card, and then he came to the side again and 
bawled, “ The sun bears west-nor’-west.” 

I flourished my hand to let him know I heard him, and 
going to the compass-stand found that my compass put 
the sun west, half north ! This was a desperate variation ; 
but then I was bound to admit that the schooner rolled so 
heavily, and the oscillations of the card were so swift, it 
was more than likely that half the difference betwixt the 
two compasses was due to an error in my own calculation. 
Be this as it may, the sun slipped out of sight before I 
could fix him so as to get the mean of the swings of the 
card. The American captain hailed me to know how it 
stood with my compass, but I answered with a wave of 
the hand, as though I had not caught what he said — not 
choosing to tell the truth, lest it should render my three 


222 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


men uneasy, and perhaps urge them to return to their ves- 
sel. 

The dusk of the evening came quick out of the east, and 
the wind freshened with a long cry in our rigging, as if the 
eastern darkness was a foe it was rushing out of the west 
to meet. I brought the schooner north-northeast by my 
compass, and watched her behavior anxiously. The swell 
was on the quarter, and the wind and sea a trifle abaft the 
larboard beam ; she leaned a little to the weight of her 
clothes, but was surprisingly stiff considering how light 
she was. Wilkinson and the negro came and stood by my 
side. The sea broke heavily from the weather-bow, and 
the water roared white under the lee bends and spread 
astern in a broad wake of foam. The whaler did not 
brace his yards up till after we had started, and now hung 
a pale, faint mass in the windy darkness on the quarter. 
A tincture of rusty red hovered like smoke colored by the 
furnace that produces it in the west, but the night had 
drawn down quick and dark ; the washing noise of the 
water was sharp, the wind piercingly cold ; each sweep of 
the schooner’s masts to windward was followed by a dull 
roaring of the blast rushing out of the hollows of the can- 
vas, and she swung to the seas with wild yaws, but with 
regularity sufficient to prove the strict government of the 
helm. 

But it was being at sea — homeward bound, too ! There 
was no wish of mine, engendered by my hideous loneliness 
on the ice, by my abhorred association with the French- 
man, that I could not refer to as, down to this moment, 
gratified. My heart bounded ; my spirits could not have 
been higher had this ocean been the Thames, and yonder 
dark flowing hills of water the banks of Erith and the 
Gravesend shore. 

I turned to the three men: “My lads,” said I, “you 
prove yourselves fine, bold fellows by thus volunteering. 
Do not fear ; if God guides us home — to my home, I mean 
— you shall find a handsome account in this business.” 

“ Six more chaps W'ould have jined had th’ ole man bin 
willin’,” said Wilkinson. “ But best as it is, master, though 
she's a trifle short-handed.” 

“Why, yes,” said I, “but being fore and aft, you know ! 
It isn’t as if we’d got courses to hand and topsails to reef.” 

“Ay, ay, dat’s de troof,” cried Billy Pitt. “ I tort o’ dat. 
Fore an’ aft makes de difference. Don’t guess I should 
hab volunteer had she been a brig.” 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


223 

“ There are four of us,” said I. “ You’re my chief mate, 
Wilkinson. Choose your watch.” 

I choose Cromwell,” said he ; “ he was in my watch 
aboard the whaler.” 

“Very well,” I exclaimed ; and this being settled, and 
both negroes declaring themselves good cooks, we ar- 
ranged that they should alternately have the dressing of 
our victuals ; that Wilkinson should have the cabin next 
mine, and the negroes the one in which the Frenchman 
had slept, one taking the other’s place as he was relieved. 

I asked Wilkinson what he thought of the schooner. 
He answered that he was watching her. 

“ There’s nothin’ to find fault with yet,” said he ; “ she’s 
a whale at rolling, sartinly. I guess she walks, though. I 
reckon she’s had enough of the sea, like me, and’s got the 
scent o’ the land in her nose. I guess old Noah wasn’t 
far oif when her lines was laid. Mebbe his sons had the 
building of her. There’s something scriptural in her cut. 
How old’s she, master ? ” 

“ Fifty years and more,” said I. 

“ Dere’s nuffin’ pertickler in dat,” cried Cromwell. “ I 
knows a wessel dat am a hundred an’ four year old, s’elp 
me as I stand.” 

“ I don’t know how the whaler’s heading,” said I, “ but 
this schooner’s a canoe if we aren’t dropping her !” 

Indeed she was scarce visible astern — a mere windy 
flicker, hovering upon the pale flashings of the foam. It 
might be, perhaps, that the whaler was making a more 
northerly course than we, and under very snug canvas, 
though ours was snug enough too ; but be this as it may, 
I was mighty pleased with the slipping qualities of the 
schooner. I never could have dreamed that so odd and 
ugly a figure of a ship would show such heels. But I 
think this : we are too prone to view the handiwork of our 
sires with contempt. I do not know but that their ships 
were as fast as ours. They made many good passages. 
They might have proved themselves fleeter navigators 
had they had the sextant and chronometer to help them 
along. Fifty years hence, perhaps, mankind will be laugh- 
ing at our crudities — we, by Heaven, who flatter ourselves 
that the art of ship-building and navigation will never be 
carried higher than the pitch to which we have raised 
them ! 

Cromwell being at the tiller, I told -Billy Pitt to go 
below and get supper, instructing him what to dress and 


224 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


how much to mix for a bowl— for, as you know, there was 
nothing but spirits and wine to season our repast with. I 
saw Cromwell grin widely into the binnacle candle-flame 
when he heard me talk of ham, tongue, sweetmeats, mar- 
malade, and the like for supper, together with a can of hot 
claret ; and knowing sailor’s nature middling well, I did 
not doubt that the fare of the schooner would bring the 
three men more into love with the adventure than even 
tlie reward that was to follow it. 

I had noticed that the bundles which had been sent 
from the whaler as belonging to the poor fellows were 
meagre enough, and showed, indeed, like the end of a long 
voyage, and I detained Billy Pitt a minute while I told 
them that there was a handsome stock of clothes in the 
cabins, together with linen, boots, and other articles of 
that sort ; that, though the coats, breeches, and waistcoats 
were of bright color and old-fashioned, they would keep 
them as warm as if they had been cut by a tailor of to- 
day. 

“These things,” said I, “you can wear at sea, keeping 
your own clothes ready to slip on should we be spoken, or 
to wear when we arrive in England. To-morrow they 
shall be divided among you, and they will become your 
property. The suit you saw me in to-day is all that I shall 
need.” 

Both negroes burst into a most diverting laugh of joy 
on hearing this. Nothing delights a black man more than 
colored apparel. They had seen the clothes in the fore- 
castle, and guessed the kind of garments I meant to pre- 
sent them with. 

While supper was getting ready, I walked the deck with 
Wilkinson, both of us keeping a bright lookout, for it was 
blowing fresh ; the darkness lay thick about us, there 
might be ice near us, and the schooner was storming under 
her reefed mainsail, topsail, and staysail through the 
hollow seas, thundering with a great roaring, seething 
noise into the trough, and lifting to the foaming slope with 
her masts wildly aslant. I talked to my companion very 
freely, being anxious to find out what kind of person he 
was ; and I must say that there was something in his con- 
versation that impressed me very favorably. He told me 
that he had a wife at New Bedford, that he was heartily 
sick of the sea, and that he hoped the money he would get 
by this adventure, added to his Azy, would enable him to 
set up for himself ashore. 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


225 


“ Well,” said I, “ we will see to-morrow what cargo Cap- 
tain Tucker has left us. But that you may be under no 
misapprehension, Wilkinson, if we are fortunate enough 
to bring the ship safely to England, I will enter into a 
bond to pay you one thousand pounds sterling for your 
share one week after the date of our arrival.’’ 

He answered that if he could get that sum he would be 
a made man for life. “ But it’s too much to expect, sir,” 
says he. 

I told liim that he had no idea of the value of the cargo. 
The wines and spirits were of such a quality that I would 
stake my interest in the schooner in their fetching a large 
sum of money. 

“That’ll depend,” said he, “on how much the capt’n 
left us.” 

“ He helped himself freely,” I answered, “ but we are 
well off too. You shall judge to-morrow. Then there’s 
the schooner as she stands, besides a noble stock of stores 
of all kinds — sails, ropes, tools, ammunition, and several 
chests of small-arms. I tell you I will give you a thousand 
pounds for your share.” 

His satisfaction was expressed by his silence. 

“ But,” continued I, “ we must act with judgment. What 
we have we must keep. Are the negroes trustworthy 
men t ” 

“Yes, they are honest fellows. I wouldn’t have shipped 
with them else.” 

“We shall not require much for ourselves,” said I, “and 
the rest we’ll batten down and keep snug. There’ll be 
some manoeuvring needed in order to come off clear with 
this booty when we arrive ; but there’s plenty of time to 
think that over, and our business till then is to look after 
the ship, and pray for luck to keep clear of anything hos- 
tile.” 

And then we fell to other talk— -in the course of which 
he told me he was an Englishman born, but having been 
pressed into a man-of-war deserted her at Halifax, and 
made several voyages in American ships. He was wrecked 
on the Peruvian coast and became a beach-comber, and 
then got a berth in a whaler. He married at New Bedford 
and sailed with Captain Tucker ; this was his second whal- 
ing trip, he said, and he wanted no more. I told him I 
was glad to learn that he was a countryman of mine, but 
not surprised. His speech was well larded with Ameri- 
canisms; “but,” said I, “the true twang is wanting, and,” 


15 


226 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


added I, laughing, I should know you for Hampshire, 
for all your reckons and guesses ; if I had to eat you, should 
I be mistaken ?” 

“ The press-gang’s the best friend the Yankees have,” 
said he, a little sheepishly. “ Do any man suppose I 
hadn’t sooner hail from my native town, Southampton, than 
from New Bedford t Half the American folkses is made 
up of Yankees who’d prove hearts of oak if it wasn’t for 
the press.” 

His candor gratified me, as showing that he already 
looked upon me as a shipmate to be trusted ; and, as I 
have said, this first chat with the man left me strongly 
disposed to consider myself fortunate in having him as 
an associate. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

I VALUE THE LADING. 

The day had been so full of business, there had been so 
much to engage my mind, that it was not until I was 
seated at supper in the old cook-room, in which I had 
passed so many melancholy hours, that I found myself 
able to take a calm survey of my situation, and to com- 
pare the various motions of my fortunes. I could scarcely 
indeed believe that I was not in a dream, from which I 
should awaken presently, and discover myself still securely 
imprisoned in the ice, and all those passages of the powder- 
blasts, the liberation of the schooner, my lonely days in 
her afloat, my encounter with the whaler, as visionary and 
vanishing as those dusky forms of vapor which had 
swarmed in giant-shape over my little open boat. 

But even if confirmation had been wanting in the sable 
visage of Billy Pitt, who sat near the furnace munching 
away with prodigious enjoyment of his food, and bringing 
his can of hot spiced wine from his vast blubber lips with 
a mighty sigh of deep delight, I must have found it in 
each hissing leap and roaring plunge of the old piratical 
bucket, so full of the vitality of the wind-swollen canvas, 
so quick with all the life-instincts of a vessel storming 
through the deep with buoyant keel and under full control. 
O Heaven ! how different from the dull ambling of the 
morning, the sluggish pitching and rolling to the weak 
pulling of the spritsail ! 


THE FROZEN P/RATE. 


227 


Wilkinson and Cromwell kept the deck while Billy Pitt 
and I got our supper, and I had some talk with my negro, 
who seemed to be a very simple, childish fellow, heartily 
in love with his stomach, and very eager to see England. 
He told me that he had heard it was a fine country, and 
his wish to see it was one reason of his volunteering. 

“ Dey say,” said he, “ dat Lunnon’s a very fine place, 
sah, bigger dan Philadelphy, and dat a man’s skin don’ 
tell agin him among de yaller gals dere.” 

I laughed, and said tliat in my country people were 
judged rather by the color of their hearts than by the hue 
of their faces. 

“ But dollars count for something too, sah, I spects ? ” 
said he. 

“Why, yes,” said I ; “ with dollars enough you can make 
black white in England.” 

“ Hum ! ” cried he, scratching his head ; “ I guess it’ud 
take an almighty load of dollars to make me white, massa.” 

“ Put money in your pocket and think it,” said I, “and 
your face’ll be found white enough, I warrant.” 

“ By ^golly ! ” cried he, “ I’ll do it, den. S’elp me de 
Lord, massa, I’d chink twenty year for a white face. Dat 
comes ob bein’ civilized. Tell’ee what dey dew, massa — 
dey makes you feel like a white man, and dey lets you 
keep black, blast ’em ! ” 

I checked his excitement by telling him that in my 
country he would find that the negro was a person held in 
very high esteem ; that the women in particular valued 
him for that very dinginess which the Americans found 
distasteful, and told him that I could name several ladies 
of quality who had married their black servants. 

He looked surprised but not incredulous, and said in his 
peculiar dialect that he had no doubt I spoke the truth, as 
he had always heard that England was a fine country to 
live in. I then led him insensibly from this topic to talk 
of the sea and his experiences, and found that he had seen 
a very great deal — having been freed when young, and 
keeping to the ocean ever since in many different sorts of 
craft. Indeed, I was as much pleased with him as with 
Wilkinson ; but th^n I had foreseen a simplicity in both 
the negroes, and in expectation of finding this quality, so 
useful to one in my strange position, I was overjoyed when 
they consented to help me sail the schooner to the 
Thames. 

We went on deck to relieve Wilkinson and Cromwell. 


228 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


Billy Pit took the tiller, and I walked to either rail and 
stared into the darkness. It was very thick, with occa- 
sional squalls of snow, which put a screaming as of tort- 
ured cats into the wind as they swung through it. The 
sea was high, but the schooner was making excellent 
weather of it, while she rolled and pitched through the 
black welter at seven knots in the hour. ’Twas noble, use- 
ful sailing, yet a speed not to be relished in these waters 
amid so deep a shadow. Still the temptation to “ hold on 
all,” as we say, was very great ; every mile carried us by 
so much nearer to the temperate parallels, and shortened 
to that extent the long, long passage that lay before us. 

I was pacing the deck briskly, for the wind was horribly 
keen, when Pitt suddenly called out, “ I say, massa ! ” 

“ Hullo ! ” I replied. 

“ Sah,” he cried, “ I smell ice ! ” 

I knew that this was a capacity not uncommon among 
men who had voyaged much in the frosty regions of the 
deep, and instantly exclaimed, “ Luif, then, luff ! shake 
the way out of her ! ” sniffing as I spoke, but detecting no 
added shrewdness in the air already freezingly cold. He 
put the helm down, and I called to the others below to come 
on deck and flatten in the main-sheet. They were up in a 
trice and tailed on with me, asking no questions, till we 
had the boom nearly amidships. 

I was about to speak when Wilkinson cried out, “ I smell 
ice!” He sniffed a moment. “Yes, there’s an island 
aboard. Anybody see it ?” 

“ Ay, dere it am, sure enough ! ” cried Cromwell. “ Dere 
— on the lee-bow — see it, sah ? See it, Billy ?” 

Yes, I saw it plain enough when I knew where to look 
for it. ’Twas just such another lump of faintness as had 
wrecked the Laughing Mary — a mass of dull spectral light 
upon the throbbing blackness ; and it lay exactly in a line 
with the course we had been steering when Pitt first called 
out, so that assuredly we had not shifted our helm a min- 
ute too soon. We chopped and wallowed past it slowly, 
keeping a sharp lookout for like apparitions in other quar- 
ters, and when it had disappeared I made up my mind to 
heave the schooner to and keep her in that posture till 
daylight, unless the niglit cleared. So we got the main- 
sail down and stowed it, clewed up the topsail (which I 
lent a liand to roll up), and let the vessel lie under a reefed 
foresail with her helm lashed. The weather, however, 
must have ultimately compelled what the thickness had 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


22 ^ 


required ; for by ten o’clock it was blowing a hard gale, 
with a frequent hoariness of clouds of snow upon the 
blackness, the seas very high and foaming, and the wind 
crying madly in the rigging. 

I let some time go by, and then sounded the well, and 
found no more water than the depth at which the pumps 
sucked. This did wonders in the way of reassuring the 
men, who were rendered uneasy by the violent motions of 
the unwieldy vessel, and by the very harsh straining noises 
which rose out of the hold, which latter they would natu- 
rally attribute to the craziness of the fabric, though the 
true cause of it lay in the number of loose movable bulk- 
heads. 

“ It’s amazin’ to me that she holds together at all,” cried 
Wilkinson, “so ancient she is ! ” 

“She’s only old,” said I, “in the sound of the years 
she’s been in existence. The ice has kept her young. 
Would the hams and tongues we’re eating be taken to be 
half a century old ? Yet where could you buy sweeter 
and better meat of the kind ashore ? A ship’s well is your 
only honest reporter of her condition. Ours has vouched 
in a way that should keep you easy.” 

“Arter de Soosan Tucker dis is like bein’ hungup to 
dry,” exclaimed one of the negroes. “ It war pump, pump 
dere, and no mistake. I call dis a werry beautiful little 
sheep, raassa ; )'es, s’elp me de Lord, dere’s nuffin could 
persuade me she ain’t what I says she am.” 

However, I was up and down a good deal during the 
night. But for the treasure I should have been less 
anxious, I dare say. 1 had come so successfully to this 
point that I was resolved, if my hopes were to miscarry, 
the misfortune should not be owing to w’ant of vigilance 
on my part ; and there happened an incident which in- 
evitably tended to sharpen my watchfulness, though I was 
perfectly conscious it was a million to one against its oc- 
curring a second time. I came on deck to relieve Wilkin- 
son at midnight, after a half-hour’s nodding doze by the 
furnace below. He went to his cabin ; I stood under the 
lee of a cloth seized in the weather main-rigging. Pitt 
arrived, and I told him he could return to the cook-house, 
and stay there till I called him. The helm being lashed 
and the schooner doing very well, nothing wanted watch- 
ing in particular ; yet I would not have the deck aban- 
doned, and meant to keep a lookout, turn and turn 
about, with Pitt, as Wilkinson and Cromwell had. The 


230 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


snow had ceased, but it was very dark and thick, the 
ocean a roaring, weltering shadow, palpitating upon the 
eyes in rolling folds of blackness, with the quick expiring 
flash of foam to windward. On a sudden, looking over 
the weather quarter, methought I discerned a deeper 
shade in the night there than was elsewhere perceptible. 
It was like a great blot of ink upon the darkness. Even 
while I speculated, it drew out in the shape of a ship run- 
ning before the gale. She seemed to be heading directly 
for us. The roof of my mouth turned dry as desert-sand ; 
my tongue and limbs refused their office ; I could neither 
cry nor stir, being indeed paralyzed by the terrible sud- 
denness of that apparition and the imminence of our peril. 
It all happened while you could have told thirty. The 
great black mass surged up with the water boiling about 
the bows ; she brought a thunder along with her in her 
rigging and sails as she soared to the crowns of the seas she 
was sweeping before. I could not tell what canvas she 
was under, but her speed was a full ten knots, and as I 
did not see her till she was close, she looked to come upon 
us as with a single bound. She passed us to windward 
within a stone’s-throw, and vanished like a dark cloud 
melting into the surrounding blackness. Not a gleam of 
light broke from her ; you heard nothing but the boiling 
at her bows and the thunderous pealing of the gale in her 
canvas. A quarter turn of the wheel would have sent us 
to the bottom, and her, no doubt, on top of us. Whether 
she was the Susan Tucker or some other whaler, or a big 
Southseaman driven low and getting what easting she 
could out of the gale, I know not. She was as complete 
a mystery of the ocean night as any spectral fabric, and a 
heavier terror to me than a phantasm worked by ghosts 
could have proved. 

I knew such a thing could not happen again, yet when I 
called Pitt I talked to him about it as though we must cer- 
tainly be run down if he did not keep a sharp lookout ; 
and when my watch below came round at four o’clock, I 
was so agitated that I was up and down till daybreak, as 
though my duty did not end till then. 

The gale moderated at sunrise ; and though it was a 
gloomy, true Cape Horn morning, with dark driving 
clouds, the sea a dusky olive, ver)^ hollow, and frequent 
small, quick squalls of sleet which brought the wind to us 
in sharp guns, yet, as we could see where we were going, 
I got the schooner before it, heading her east-northeast, 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


231 


and under a reefed topsail, mainsail, and staysail the old 
bucket stormed through it with the sputter and rage of a 
line-of-battle ship. There was a log-reel and line on deck, 
and I found a sand-glass in the cliest in my cabin in which 
I had met with the quadrants, perspective-glass and the 
like, and I kept this log regularly going, making a point 
of departure on the chart the American captain had given 
me, which I afterward found to be within two leagues and 
a half of the true position. But for three days the 
weather continued so heavy that there was nothing to be 
done in the shape of gratifying tlie men’s expectations by 
overhauling what was left of the cargo. Indeed, we had 
no leisure for such work ; all our waking hours had to be 
strictly dedicated to the schooner, and in keeping a look- 
out for ice. But the morning of the fourth day broke 
with a fine sky and a brisk breeze from a little to the east 
of south, to which we showed every cloth the schooner 
had to throw abroad ; and being now by dead reckoning 
within a few leagues of the meridian of sixty degrees, I 
shaped a course north by east by my compass, with the 
design of getting a view of Staten Island, that I might cor- 
rect my calculations. 

When we had made sail and got our breakfast, I told 
Wilkinson and Cromwell (Pitt being at the tiller) that 
now was a good opportunity for inspecting the contents 
of the hold ; and (not to be tedious in this part of my re- 
lation, however I may have sinned in this respect else- 
where) we carried lanterns below, and spent the better 
part of the forenoon in taking stock. From a copy of the 
memorandum I made on that occasion (still in my posses- 
sion), I discovered that the Yankee captain had left us the 
following : thirty-five casks of rum, twenty-eight hogs- 
heads of claret, sixty puncheons of brandy, forty casks of 
sherry, eighteen cases of beer in bottles, together with a 
number of “ pieces ” of gin, as it is called. In addition to 
this were the stores in the lazarette, besides a quantity of 
several kinds of wine in jars, etc., elsewhere enumerated, 
besides all. the ship’s furniture, her guns, powder, small- 
arms, etc., as well as the ship herself. I took the men 
into the run and showed them the chests, opening the 
little one which stood stocked with small-arms, and lifting 
the lids of two or three of the others. They were per- 
fectly satisfied ; fully believed the chests to be filled with 
small-arms and nothing else, and so we came away and 
returned to the cabin, where to please them, I put down 


232 


THE FROZEN F IRATE. 


the value of the cargo at a venture, setting figures against 
each article, and making out a total of two thousand six 
hundred and forty pounds. This, of course, included the 
ship. 

“ How much’ll dat be a man, massa ? ” asked Cromwell. 

“ Six hundred and sixty pounds,” I answered. 

The poor fellow was so transported that, after staring at 
me in silence with the corners of his mouth stretched to 
his ears, he tossed up his hands, burst into a roar of laugh- 
ter, and made several skips about the deck. 

“Of course,” said I, addressing Wilkinson, “my figures 
may be ahead or short of the truth. But if you are dis- 
posed to take the chance, I’ll tell you what I’ll do ; I’ll 
stand by my figures, accepting the risk of the value of the 
lading being less than what I say it is, and undertake to 
give eacli man of you a thousand pounds for your share.” 

“Well, sir,” said he, “I don’t know that I ought to ob- 
ject. But a few pounds is a matter of great consequence 
to me, and I reckon if these here goods and the wessel 
should turn out to be worth more than ye offer, the loss 
’lid go agin the grit — ay, if ’twere twenty dollars a man.” 

I laughed, and told him to let the matter rest ; there 
was plenty of time before us ; I should be willing to stand 
to my offer even if I lost by it, so heartily obliged was I 
to them for coming to my assistance. And in this I spoke 
the truth, though, as you will understand who know my 
position, I had to finesse. It went against my conscience 
to make out that the chests were full of small-arms ; but I 
should have been mad to tell them the truth, and perhaps 
by the truth make devils of men who were, and promised 
to remain, steady, temperate, honest fellows. I was not 
governed by the desire to keep all the treasure to myself ; 
no, I vow to God I should have been glad to give them a 
moiety of it had I not apprehended the very gravest con- 
sequences if I were candid with them. But this, surely, 
must be so plain that it is idle to go on insisting on it. 

The fine weather, the golden issue that was to attend 
our successful navigation, the satisfactory behavior of the 
schooner, put us into a high good-humor with one an- 
other ; and when it came to my collecting all the clothes 
in the after-cabins and to distributing them among the 
three men, I thought Billy Pitt and Cromwell would have 
gone mad with delight. To the best of my recollection, 
the apparel that had been left us by the American captain 
(who, as you know, had cleared the forecastle of the 


THE FROZEN F IRATE. 


233 


clothes there) consisted of several coats of cut velvet, 
trimmed with gold and silver lace, some frocks of white 
drab with large plate buttons, brocade waistcoats of blue 
satin and green silk, crimson and other colored cloth 
breeches, along with some cloaks, three-corner hats, black 
and white stockings, a number of ruffled shirts, and other 
articles of which 1 recollect the character, though my ig- 
norance of the costumes of that period prevents me from 
naming them. 

Anyone acquainted with the negro’s delight in colored 
clothes will hardly need to be told of the extravagant joy 
raised in the black breasts of Cromwell and Pitt by my 
distribution of this fine attire. The lace, to be sure, was 
tarnished, and some of the colors faded, but all the same 
the apparel furnished a brave show ; and such was the 
avidity with which the poor creatures snatched at the gar- 
ments as I offered them first to one and then another, that 
I believe they would have been perfectly satisfied with the 
clothes alone as payment for their services. I made this 
distribution on the quarter-deck, or little poop, rather, that 
all might be present. Wilkinson was at the tiller, and ap- 
peared highly delighted with the bundle allotted him, say- 
ing that he might reckon upon a hearty welcome from his 
wife when she came to know what was in his chest. The 
negroes were wild to clothe themselves at once ; I advised 
them to wait for the warm weather, but they were too im- 
patient to put on their fine feathers to heed my advice. 
They ran below, and were gone half an hour, during which 
time I have no doubt they tried on all they had ; and when 
at last they returned, their appearance was so exquisitely 
absurd, that I laughed till I came near to suffocating. 
Each negro had tied a silver-laced hat on to his woolly 
head ; one wore a pair of crimson, the other a pair of black 
velvet breeches ; over their cucumber shanks they had 
drawn white silk stockings, regardless of the cold ; their 
feet were incased in buckled shoes, and their costumes 
were completed by scarlet and blue waistcoats which fell 
to their knees, and crimson and blue coats with immense 
skirts. What struck me as most astonishing was their 
gravity. Their self-complacency was prodigious ; they 
eyed each other with dignified approbation, and strutted 
with the air of provincial mayors and aldermen newly ar- 
rived from the presence of royalty. 

“ They’re in keepin’ with the schooner, anyways,” said 
Wilkinjon. 


234 


7' FIE FROZEN' PIRAl'E. 


And SO perhaps they were. The antique fabric needed 
the sparkle of those costumes on her deck to make her 
aspect fit in with the imaginations she bred. But, as I 
had anticipated, the cold proved too powerful for their 
conceit, and they were presently glad to ship their more 
modern trousers, though they clung obstinately to their 
waistcoats, and could not be persuaded to remove their 
hats on any account whatever. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

OUR PROGRESS TO THE CHANNEL. 

When I started to relate my adventure I never designed 
to write an account of the journey home at large. On the 
contrary, I foresaw that, by the time I had arrived at this 
part, you would have had enough of the sea. Let me now, 
then, be as brief as possible. 

The melting of the ice and the slowly increasing power 
of the sun were inexpressibly consoling to me, who had 
had so much of the cold that I do protest if Elysium were 
bleak, no matter how radiant, and the abode of the fiends 
as hot as it is pictured, I would choose to turn my back 
upon the angels. I cannot say, however, that the schooner 
was properly thawed until we were hard upon the parallels 
of the Falkland Islands; she then showed her timbers 
naked to the sun, and exposed a brown, solid deck ren- 
dered ugly by several dark patches, which, scrape as we 
might, we could not obliterate. We struck the guns into 
the hold for the better ballasting of the vessel, got stud- 
ding-sail booms aloft, overhauled her suits of canvas, and 
found a great square-sail which proved of inestimable im- 
portance in light winds and in running. After the ice was 
wholly melted out of her frame she made a little water, 
yet not so much but that a half-hour’s spell at the pump 
twice a day easily freed her. But, curiously enough, at 
the end of a fortnight she became tight again, which I 
attribute to the swelling of her timbers by their direct 
contact with the water. 

We were a slender company, but we managed extraor- 
dinarily well. The men were wonderfully content ; I 
never heard so much as a murmur escape from one of 
them ; they never exceeded their rations nor asked for a 


THE FROZEN PIRA TE. 


235 


drop more of liquor than we had agreed among us should 
be served out. But, as I had anticipated, our security lay 
in our slenderness. We were too few for disaffection. 
The negroes were as simple as children, Wilkinson looked 
to find his account in a happy arrival ; and if I was not, 
strictly speaking, their captain, I was their navigator, 
without whom their case would have been as perilous as 
mine was on the ice. 

Outside the natural perils of the sea we had but one 
anxiety, and that concerned ojr being chased and taken. 
This fear was heartily shared by my companions, to whom 
I also represented that it must be our business to give 
even the ships of our country a wide berth ; for, though 
I had long since flung all the compromising bunting 
overboard, and destroyed all the papers I could come 
across, which, being written in a language I was ignorant 
of, might for all I knew contain some damning informa- 
tion, a British ship would be sure to board us, and I should 
have to tell the truth or take the risks of prevaricating. 
If I told the truth, then I should have to admit that the 
lading of the vessel was piratical plunder ; and though I 
knew not how the law stood with regard to booty rescued 
from certain destruction after the lapse of hard upon a 
half a century, yet it was a hundred to one that the whole 
would be claimed in the king’s name under a talk of resti- 
tution, which signified that we should never hear more of 
it. On the other hand, prevarication would not fail to ex- 
cite suspicion, and on our not being able to satisfactorily 
account for our possession of the ship and what was in 
her, it might end in our actually being seized as pirates 
and perhaps executed. 

This reasoning went very well with the men, and filled 
them with such anxiety that they were forever on the 
lookout for a sail. But, as you may guess, my own solici- 
tude sank very much deeper ; for, supposing the schooner 
to be rummaged by an English crew, it was as certain as 
that my hand was affixed to my arm that the chests of 
treasure would be transshipped, and lost to me by the law’s 
trickery. 

Now, till we were, to the north of the equator we sighted 
nothing ; no, in all those days not a single sail ever hove 
into view to break the melancholy continuity of the sea- 
line. But between the parallels of 12° and 22° N. we met 
with no less than eight ships, the nearest no closer than a 
league. We watched them as cats watch mice ; making a 


236 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


rule to bear away if they were going our road, or if they 
were coming toward us to shift our helm — but never very 
markedly — so as to let them pass us at the widest possible 
distance. Some of them showed a color, but we never 
answered their signals. That they were all harmless 
traders I will not affirm ; but none of them offered to chase 
us. Yet could I have been sure of a ship, I should have 
been glad to speak her. My longitude was little more 
than guesswork, my latitude not very certain, and my com- 
pass was out. However, I supported my own and the 
spirits of my little company by telling them of the early 
navigators— how Columbus, Candish, Drake, Schouten, 
and other heroic marine worthies of distant times had 
navigated the globe, discovered new worlds, penetrated 
into the most secret solitudes of the deep without any 
notion of longitude, and with no better instruments to 
take the sun’s height with than the forestaff and astrolabe. 
We were better off than they ; and I had not the least 
doubt, I told them, of bringing the old schooner to a safe 
berth off Deal or Gravesend. 

But it happened that we were chased when on the polar 
verge of the northeast trade-wind. It was blowing brisk, 
the sea breaking in snow upon the weather-bow, the sky 
overcast with clouds, and the schooner washing through 
it under a single-reefed mainsail and whole topsail. It 
was noon ; I was taking an observation, when Pitt at the 
tiller sang out “ Sail ho ! ” and looking, I spied the swell- 
ing, cloud-like canvas of a vessel on a line with our star- 
board cathead. I told Pitt to let the schooner fall off 
three points, and with slackened sheets the old Boca del 
Dragon hummed through it brilliantly, flinging the foam 
as far aft as the gangway. The strange sail rose rapidly, 
and the lifting of her hull discovered her to be a line-of- 
battle ship. We held on as we were, hoping to escape her 
notice ; but whether she did not like our appearance, or 
that there was something in the figure we cut that excited 
her curiosity, she on a sudden put her helm up and steered 
a true course fc^r us. 

At the first sight of her I had called Wilkinson and 
Cromwell on deck, and I now cried out, “ Lads, d’ye see 
— she’s after us ! If she catches us our dream of dollars 
is over. Lively, now, boys, and give her all she can stag- 
ger under ; and what she can’t carry she must drag.” And 
we sprang to make sail, briskly as apes, and everyone 
working with two-man power. I knew the old Boca’s best 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


237 


point — it was with the wind dead abeam ; we put her to 
that, got the great square-sail on her, shook out all reefs, 
and gave all she had to the wind. The wake roared away 
from her like a white torrent that flies from the foot of a 
foaming cataract. She had the pirate’s instincts, and be- 
ing put to her trumps was nimble. God ! how she did 
swim through it ! Never had I driven the aged bucket 
before like this, and I now know that speed at sea is not 
irreconcilable with odd bodies. But the great ship to 
windward hung steady — a cloud of swelling cloths. When 
wc had set the studding-sail we had nothing more to fly 
with ; and so we stood looking. She slapped six shots 
at us, one after another, as a haughty hint to us to stop ; 
but we meant to escape, and at last we did, outsailing her 
by thirteen inches to her foot — one foot to her t;velve — 
though she stuck to our skirts the whole afternoon, and 
kept us in an agony of anxiety. 

The sun was setting when she abandoned us ; she was 
then some five or six miles distant on our weather quarter. 
What her nation was I did not know ; but Wilkinson reck- 
oned her French when she gave us up. We rushed stead- 
ily along the same course into the darkness of the night ; 
and then, shortening sail, brought the schooner to tiie 
wind again, after which wc drank to the frisky old jade in 
an honestly earned bowl. 

It was on the 5th of December that we sighted the Scilly 
Isles. I guessed what that land was ; but so vague had 
been my navigation that I durst not be sure, until, spying 
a smack with her nets over, I steered for her and got the 
information I needed from her people. They answered 
us with an air of fear, and in trutli the fellows had reason ; 
for, besides the singular appearance of the ship, the four 
of us were apparelled in odds and ends of the antique 
clothes, and I have little doubt they considered us luna- 
tics of another country, who had run away with a ship be- 
longing to parts where the tastes and fashions were be- 
hind the age. 

Now, as you may suppose, by this time I had settled my 
plans ; and as 'we sailed up Channel I unfolded them to 
my companions. I pointed out that before we entered the 
river it would be necessary to discharge our lading into 
some little vessel that would smuggle the booty ashore for 
us. The figure the schooner made was so peculiar that 
she would inevitably attract attention ; she would instantly 
be boarded in the Thames on our coming to anchor, and 


238 


THE FROZEN PJRATE. 


if I told the truth she would be seized as a pirate, and our- 
selves dismissed with a small reward, and perhaps with 
nothing. 

“ My scheme,” said I, “ is this : I have a relative in Lon- 
don to whom I shall communicate the news of my arrival 
and tell him my story. You, Wilkinson, must be tlie 
bearer of this letter. He is a shrewd, active man, and I 
will leave it to him to engage the help we want. There 
is no lack of the right kind of serviceable men at Deal ; 
and if they are promised a substantial interest in smug- 
gling our lading asliore, they will run the goods success- 
fully, do not fear. As there is sure to be a man-of-war 
stationed in the Downs, we must keep clear of that an- 
chorage. I will land you at Lydd, whence you will make 
your way to Dover and thence to London. Cromwell and 
Pitt will return and help me to keep cruising. My letter 
to my relative will tell him where to seek me, and I shall 
know his boat by her flying a jack. When we have dis- 
charged our lading we will sail to the Thames, and then 
let who will come aboard, for we shall have a clean hold. 
This,” continued I, “ is the best scheme I can devise. The 
risks of smuggling attend it, to be sure ; but against those 
risks we have to put the certainty of our forfeiting our 
just claims to the property if we carry the schooner to the 
Thames. Even suppose, when there, that we should not 
be immediately visited, and so be provided with an oppor- 
tunity to land our stuff, whom have we to trust ? The 
Thames abounds with river-thieves, with lumpers, scuffle- 
hunters, mud-larks, glutmen, rogues of all sorts, to hire 
whom would mean to bribe them with the value of half 
the lading, and to risk their stealing the other half. But 
this is the lesser difficulty ; the main one lies in this : 
there are some sixteen luindred men employed in the 
London Custom-house, most of whom are on river duty 
as watchmen ; thirty of these people are clapped aboard 
an East Indiaman, five or six on West India ships, and 
a like proportion in otiier vessels. So strange a craft 
as ours would be visited, depend on’t, and smartly, too. 
D’ye see the danger, lads ? What do you say, then, to my 
scheme ? ” 

The negroes immediately answered that they left it to me 
— I knew best ; they would be satisfied with whatever I did. 

Wilkinson mused awhile, and then said, “ Smuggling was 
risky work. How would it be if we represented that we had 
found the schooner washing about with nobody aboard?” 


THE FROZEN PIRATt^. 


239 


“ The tale wouldn’t be credited,” said I. “ The age of 
the vessel would tell against such a story, even if you re- 
moved all other evidence by throwing the clothes and 
small-arms overboard, and whatever else might go to prove 
that the schooner must have been floating about abandoned 
since the year 1750 ! ” 

“ Mustn’t lose de clothes, massa, on no account ! ” cried 
Pitt. 

“Well, sir,” says Wilkinson, after another spell of re- 
flection. “ I reckon you’re right. If so be the law would 
seize the vessel and goods on the grounds that she had 
been a pirate and all that’s in her was plunder, why, then, 
certainly, I don’t see nothin’ else but to make a smuggling 
job of it, as you say, sir.” 

This being settled (Wilkinson’s concurrence being ren- 
dered tlie easier by my telling him that, providing the 
lading was safely run, I would adhere to my undertaking 
to give them a thousand pounds each for their share), I 
went below and spent half an hour over a letter to Mr. 
Jeremiah Mason. There was no ink, but I found a pencil, 
and for ^ paper I used the fly-leaves of the books in my 
cabin. I opened with a sketch of my adventures, and then 
went on to relate that tlie Boca was a rich ship ; that, as 
she had been a pirate, I risked her seizure by carrying her 
to London ; that I stood grievously in need of his counsel 
and help, and begged him not to lose a moment in return- 
ing with the messenger to Deal, and there hiring a boat 
and coming to me, whom he would find cruising off 
Beachy Head. That I might know his boat, I bade him 
fly a jack a little below the masthead. “As for the Boca 
del Dragon,” I added, “Wilkinson would know her if she 
were in the middle of a thousand sail, and indeed, a farm- 
er’s boy would be able to distinguish her for her uncom- 
mon oddness of figure.” I was satisfied to underscore the 
words “a rich ship,” quite certain his imagination would 
be sufficiently, fired by the expression. At anything 
further I durst not hint, as the letter would be open for 
Wilkinson to read. 

Wlien I had finished, I took a lantern and the keys of 
the chest, and went very secretly and expeditiously to the 
run, and, removingAhe layers of small-arms from the top 
of the case that held the money, I picked out some Eng- 
lish pieces, quickly returned the small-arms, locked the 
chest, and returned. 

All this time we were running up Channel, before a 


240 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


fresh westerly wind. It was true December weather, very 
raw, and the horizon tliick ; but I knew my road well, and 
while the loom of the land showed, 1 desired nothing bet- 
ter than this thickness. 

But wary sailing delayed us ; and it was not till ten 
o’clock on the night of the seventh, that we hove the 
schooner to off the shingly beach of Lydd, within sound of 
the wash of the sea upon it. The bay sheltered us ; we got 
the boat over. I gave Wilkinson the letter and ten 
guineas, bidding him keep them hidden, and use them 
cautiously with the silver change he would receive, for 
they were all guineas of the first George, and might excite 
comment if he, a poor sailor, ill-clad, should pull them out 
and exhibit them. Happily, in the liurry of the time, he 
did not think to ask me how I had come' by them. He 
thrust them into his pocket, shook my hand, and dropped 
into the boat, and the negroes immediately rowed him 
ashore. 

I stood holding a lantern upon the rail to serve them as 
a guide, waiting for the boat to return, and never breathed 
more freely in my life than when I heard the sound of oars. 
The two negroes came alongside, and, clapping the tackles 
on to the boat, we hoisted her with the capstan, and then 
under very small canvas stood out to sea again. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE END. 

I should require to write to the length of this book over 
again to do full justice by description to the difficulties 
and anxieties of the days that now followed. If it had not 
been thick weather all the time, I do not know how I 
should have fared, I am sure. I was between two fires, so 
to say ; on the one side the French cruisers and privateers, 
and on the other side the ships of my own country, and 
particularly the revenue-cutters and the sloops and the 
like cruising after the smugglers. As I knew that my 
relative could not be with me under four days, I steered 
out of sight of land into the middle of the Channel, be- 
twixt Beachy Head and the Seine coast, and there dodged 
about under very small canvas, heartily grateful for "the 
haze that shrouded the sea to within a mile of me. I 


THE FROZEN- PIRATE. 


241 


scarcely closed my eyes in sleep, and though my worries 
were now of a very different kind from those which had 
racked me on the ice, they were, in their way, to the full 
as tormenting. Every sail that loomed in the dinginess 
filled me with alarm. Several ships passed me close, and 
I could scarcely breathe till they were out of sight. In- 
deed, I lay skulking out upon that sea as if I was some 
common thief broke loose from jail. However, it pleased 
Heaven that I should manage to keep out of sight of 
those whom I most strenuously desired not to see ; and 
the afternoon of the fourth day found the Boca lying off 
Beachy Head, and I peering over the rail with a haggard 
face at the dark shadow of the land. 

It had been blowing and snowing all day. The seas 
ran short and spitefully. It was a dismal December after- 
noon, and the more sensibly disgusting to us who were 
fresh from several weeks of the balm and glory of the 
tropics. And yet I would not have exchanged it for a 
clear, fine day for all that I was like to be worth. 

It was the most reasonable thing in the world that a 
vessel should be hove to in such sombre weather ; and so 
I was under no concern that our posture in this respect 
would excite suspicion, should we be descried. The hours 
stole away one by one. Now and again a little coaster 
would pass, some hoy bound west, a sloop for the Thames, 
a lugger on some unguessable mission — all small ships, 
oozing dark and damp out of the snow and mist and pass- 
ing silently. I kept the land close aboard to be out of the 
way of the bigger craft, and kept the vessel in the wind 
till it was necessary to reach to our station. The three of 
us were mighty pensive and eager, staring incessantly 
with all our eyes ; but it looked as if we were not to ex- 
pect anything that day when the night put its darkness 
into the weather. Then, as I foresaw a serious danger if 
the wind shifted into the south, and as I could not obtain 
a glimpse of a shore-light, I resolved to bring up and ride 
till dawn. Long ago we had got the schooner’s old an- 
chors at the catheads and the cables bent ; so, lowering 
the mainsail and hauling down the stay-foresail, we let 
fall the starboard anchor, and the ship came to a stand. 
I put the lead over the side that we might know if she 
dragged, hung a lantern on the forestay and one on either 
quarter, that our presence might be marked by my relative 
should he be out in quest of us, and went below, leaving 
Cromwell to keep the lookout. 

16 


242 


THE FROZEN PIRA7'E. 


I was extremely fretful and anxious, and had no patience 
to talk with Billy Pitt. There were too many risks, too 
many vague chances in this exploit to render contempla- 
tion of it tolerable. Suppose my relative should be dead ? 
Suppose Wilkinson should be robbed of his money ? fall 
to the cutting of capers as a sailor newly delivered to the 
pleasures of the land with ten guineas in his pocket ? get 
locked up for breaking the peace ? blab of us in his cups, 
and start the Customs on our trail ? There was no end to 
such conjectures ; and I made myself so melancholy that 
I was fool enough to think that the treasure was no better 
than a curse, and that on the whole I was better off on the 
ice than here with the anchor in English ground, and my 
native soil within gunshot. 

I was up and about till midnight ; and then, being in 
the cabin and exhausted, I fell asleep across the table, and 
in that posture lay as one dead. Some one dragging at my 
arm, with very little tenderness, awoke me. I was in the 
midst of a dream of the schooner having been boarded by 
a party of French privateersmen, with Tassard at their 
head, and the roughness with which I "was aroused was 
exactly calculated to extend into my waking the horror 
and grief of my sleep. 

I instantly sprang to my feet, and saw Washington Crom- 
well. 

*‘Massa Rodney,” he bawled, “Massa Rodney, de gent’s 
’longside — him an’ Wilkinson — yaas, by de good Lord, 
dey’se both dere ! Dey hail me, an’ I answer and say ‘Who 
are you ? ’ and dey say ‘ Are you de “ Boca ? ” ‘ We am,’ I 
say, and dey say — — ” 

I had stood stupidly staring at him ; but my full under- 
standing coming to me on a sudden, I jumped to the lad- 
der and darted on deck. I heard voices over the starboard 
side and ran there. It was not so dark but that I could 
see the outline of a Deal lugger. While I was peering the 
voice of my man Wilkinson cried out, “ On deck, there ! 
Cromwell — Billy — where’s Mr. Rodney ? ” 

“ Here I am !” cried I. 

“ My God, Paul ! ” exclaimed the voice of Mr. Mason, 
“this encounter is fortunate indeed.” 

I shouted to the negroes to show a light, and in a few 
minutes Mr. Mason, Wilkinson, and a couple of Deal boat- 
men came over the side. I grasped my relative by both 
hands. I had not seen him for four years. 

“This is good of you, indeed!” 1 cried. “But you 


THE FROZEN- P/RATE. 


243 


must be perished with the cold of that open boat. Come 
below at once — come, Wilkinson, and you men — there’s 
a fire in the cook-room and drink to warm us ; ” and down 
I bundled in the wildest condition of excitement, followed 
by Mason and the others. 

My relative was warmly clad, and did not seem to suffer 
from tlie cold. He topk me by the hand and brought me 
to the lantern light, and stood viewing me. 

“Ay,” said he, “you are your old self — a bit worried- 
looking, but that’ll pass. Stout and burned. Odd’s heart ! 
Paul, if you have passed through the experiences Wilkin- 
son has given me a sketch of, we must have your life, man ; 
we must have your life — for the book-sellers.” 

Well, I need not detain you by reciting all the civilities 
and congratulations which he and I exchanged. He and 
Wilkinson had arrived at Deal at three o’clock that after- 
noon, and after a hurried meal had hired a lugger, and 
started at once for Beachy Head. It was now three o’clock 
in the moyning ; and what I may consider a truly extraor- 
dinary circumstance is, that they had sailed as true a course 
for the schooner as if she had lain plain to the gaze 
at the very start ; that since the night had drawn down 
they had met no vessel of any kind or description until 
they came up to us ; that in all probability they would 
have run stem on into us if they had not seen our lights, 
and that their seeing our lights had caused them to hail 
us, their “ Ship ahoy ! ” being instantly answered by Crom- 
well. 

“ Well,” said T, “ there are stranger things to tell of than 
this, even. Now, Wilkinson, and you, Billy and Cromwell, 
get us a good supper and mix a proper bowl. How many 
more of you are in the lugger ?” 

“ Four, sir,” says one of the boatmen. 

“ Then fetch as many as may safely leave the boat,” said 
I. “ Billy, get candles and make a good light here. Throw 
on coal, boys ; there’s enough to carry us home.” 

I saw Mason gazing curiously about him. 

“ ’Tis like a tale out of the ‘Arabian Nights,’ Paul,” he 
exclaimed. 

“Ay,” said I, “but written in bitter prose, and no hint 
of enchantment anywhere. But, thank God, you are 
come ! I have passed a dismal time of expectation, I 
promise you.” I added, softly, “ I have something secret ; 
we will sup first ; man, I shall amaze you ! We must talk 
apart presently.” 


244 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


He bowed his head. 

Three more boatmen arrived, giving us the company of 
five of them. Soon there was a hearty sound of frying 
and smell of good things upon the air. Pitt put plates 
and glasses upon the cabin-table, two great bowls of 
punch were brewed, and in a little time we had all fallen 
to. I whispered Wilkinson, who sat next me, “These 
boatmen know nothing of our business; I shall have to 
take Mr. Mason apart and arrange with him. These fel- 
lows may not be fit for our service. Let no hint escape 
you.” 

Right, sir,” said he. 

This I said to disarm his suspicions should he see me 
talking alone with Mr. Mason. He entertained us with 
an account of his excursion to London ; and then, partly 
to appease the profound curiosity of the boatmen and 
partly to save time when I should come to confer with my 
relative, I gave them the story of my shipwreck, and told 
how I had met with the schooner and how I had managed 
to escape with her. 

“And now. Mason,” said I, “while our friends here 
empty these bowls, come you with me to the cook-room.” 
And with that we quitted the cabin. 

“D’ye mean to tell me, Paul,” was the first question my 
relative asked, “ that this vessel was on the ice eight-and- 
forty years ? ” 

“Yes,” I replied. 

“ Surely you dream ? ” 

“ I think not.” 

“What we have been eating and drinking — is that forty- 
eight years old, too ? ” 

“Ay, and older.” 

“Well, such a thing shall make me credulous enough to 
duck old women for witches. But what brandy — what 
brandy ! Never had spirit such a bouquet. Every pint 
is worth its weight in guineas to a rich man. To think of 
Deal boatmen and niggers swilling such nectar!” 

“Mason,’’ said I, speaking low, “give me now your at- 
tention. In the run of this schooner are ten chests ‘loaded 
with money, bars of silver and gold, and jewelry. This 
vessel was a pirate, and her people valued their booty at 
ninety to a hundred thousand pounds.” 

His jaw fell ; he stared as if he knew not whether it 
was he or I that was mad. 

“Here is evidence that I speak the truth,” said 1. “A 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


245 


little sample only — but look at it ! ” And I put the pirate 
captain’s watch into his hand. 

He eyed it as though he discredited the intelligence of 
his sight, turned it about and returned it to me with a 
faint “ Heaven preserve me! ” Then said he, still faintly, 
‘‘You found some of the pirates alive ?” 

“No.” 

“ Who told you that the people of the vessel valued their 
plunder at that amount ?” 

I answered by giving him the story of the recovery of 
the Frenchman. 

He listened with a gaze of consternation. I saw how it 
was ; he believed my sufferings had affected my reason. 
There was only one way to settle his mind ; I took a lan- 
tern, and asked him to follow me. As we passed through 
the cabin I whispered to Wilkinson tiiat I meant to show 
my relative the lading below, and bade him keep the Deal 
men about him. I had the keys of tlie chests in my 
pocket lifting the after-hatch, we entered the lazarette, 
and Mason gazed about him with astonishment. But I 
was in too great a hurry to return to suffer him to idly 
stand and stare. I opened the second hatch and descended 
into the run, and crawling to the jewel-chest opened it, 
removed a few of the small arms, and bade him look for 
himself. 

“ Incredible ! incredible !” he cried. “ Is it possible ! 
is*lt possible ! Well to be sure !” And for some moments 
lie could find no more to say, so amazed and confounded 
was he. 

I quickly showed him the gold and silver ingots, and 
then returned the fire-arms and locked the chests. 

“ These,," said I, emphatically, pointing to the cases, 
“ have been my difficulty ; not the lading, thougli there is 
value there too. My crew know nothing of these chests — 
of their value, I mean ; they believe them cases of small- 
arms. How am I to get them ashore ? If I tell the truth, 
they will be seized as piratical plunder. If I equivocate, 
I may tumble into a pit of difficulties. I durst not carry 
them to the Thames — the river swarms with thieves and 
Custom-house people. I am terrified to linger here, lest 
I be boarded and the booty discovered. There is but one 
plan, I think ; we must hire some Deal smugglers to run 
these chests and the cargo for us. The boat now along- 
side might serve, and I don’t doubt the men are to be had 
at their own price.” 


246 


77/yi’ FROIEX PIRATE. 


My relative had regained his wits, which the sight of 
the treasure had temporarily scattered, and surveyed me 
thoughtfully while I spoke, and then said, “ Let us re- 
turn to the fire ; I think I have a better scheme than 
yours.” 

The men still sat around the table talking. Some 
liquor yet lay in one of the bowls, and the fellows were 
liappy enougii. I smiled at Wilkinson as I passed, that 
he might suppose our inspection below very satisfactory, 
and I saw him look meaningly and pleasantly at Washing- 
ton Cromwell, who sat with a laced hat on his head. 

“Paul,” said Mason, sitting down and folding his arms, 
“your smuggling plan will not do. It would be the 
height of madness to trust those chests to the risks of run- 
ning and to the honesty of the rogues engaged in that 
business.” 

“ What is to be done ? ” 

“Tell me your lading,” said he. 

“ I gave it to him as accurately as I could. 

“Why,” lie exclaimed, “a single boat would take a long 
time to discharge ye ; observe the perils — several boats 
would mean a large number of men ; they would eat you 
up ; they would demand so much you would have noth- 
ing left. And suppose they opened the chests ! No, your 
scheme is worthless.” 

“ What’s to do, then, in God’s name.” 

“ I’ll tell you ! ’ he exclaimed, smiling with the com- 
placency of a man who is master of a great fancy. “ I 
shall sail to Dover at once. ’Tis now a quarter past four. 
Give me twelve hours to make Dover ; I shall post straight 
to London and be there by early morning. Now, Paul, 
attend you to this. To-day is Wednesday ; by to-morrow 
night you must contrive to bring your ship to an anchor 
off Barking Level.” 

“ The Thames ! ” I cried. 

He nodded. 

I looked at him anxiously. He leaned to me, putting 
his hand on my leg. 

“ I own a lighter,” said he ; “she will be alongside of 
you at dusk. I have people of my own whom I can trust. 
The lighter will empty your hold and convey the lading 
to a ship chartered by me, arrived from the Black Sea on 
Sunday and lying in the Pool. The stuff can be sold 
from that ship as it is ” 

“ But the chests — the chests. Mason !” 


THE FROZEN F JR ATE. 


247 


“ They shall be lowered into another boat, and taken 
ashore and put into a wagon that will be in waiting — I in 
it — and driven to my home.” 

I clapped him on the slioulder in a transport. 

“ Nobly schemed indeed ! ” I cried ; but have we noth- 
ing to fear from the Customs people ?” 

“ No, not low down the river and at dark. You bring 
up for convenience, d’ye see. Mind it is dark when you 
anchor. A lighter and boat shall be awaiting you. It is 
down the river, you know, that all the lumpers drop with 
the lighters they go adrift in from sliips’ sides. There’s 
more safety in smuggling over Thames mud than on this 
coast shingle. One thought more : you say that Wilkin- 
son believes the chests hold small-arms ?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Then account to him for sending the chests away sep- 
arately by saying that I have found a purchaser, and that 
they are going to him direct. You have your cue — you 
see all ! ” 

“All.” 

“ Let me liurry, then, Paul; that brandy should fetch 
you half a guinea a pint. You are in luck’s W'ay, Paul. 
See that you bring your ship along safely. Till to-morrow 
night ! ” 

He clasped and wrung my hand, and ran into the 
cabin. 

“Now, lads, off with us!” he cried. “Off to Dover! 
Put me ashore there smartly, and you shall find your ac- 
count. Off now — time presses!” 

Five minutes afterward the boat was gone. 

When Fortune falls in love wdth a man she makes him 
a bounteous mistress. Everything fell out as I could have 
desired. We got our anchor at five, and by daybreak were 
off Hastings, jogging quietly along toward* London river, 
the weather conveniently obscure, the wind south, and 
forty hours before us to do the run in. I exactly ex- 
plained my relative’s scheme to Wilkinson and the others, 
who declared themselves perfectly satisfied, Wilkinson 
adding that though he had not objected to the Deal smug- 
gling project he throughout considered the risk too heavy 
to adventure. I told them that Mr. Mason believed he 
could immediately find a purchaser for the small-arms, in 
wdiich case they would have to be sent privately ashore ; 
and to give a proper color to this ruse I made them pack 
away ail the remaining weapons in the arms-room and 


248 


THE FROZEN PIRA'TE. 


carry them to the run, ready to be taken with the other 
chests. 

Once fairly round the Forelands, half my anxieties fell 
from me. Tliere was no longer the French cruiser or pri- 
vateer to be feared ; and however wonderingly the people 
of my own country’s vessels might stare at the uncommon 
figure of my schooner, they could find no excuse to board 
us. Besides, as I have said, I was greatly helped by the 
weather, which, continuing hazy, though happily never so 
thick as to oblige me to stop, delivered me to the sight 
only of such vessels as passed close, and offered me only 
as a mere smudge to the shore. 


We arrived off Barking Level at seven o’clock on the 
Thursday evening, and dropped anchor close to a lighter 
that lay there with a large boat hanging by her. It was 
then ver}" dark. The first person to come on board was 
Mason. He was followed by several men, one of whom 
he introduced to me as his head-clerk, who he said would 
see to the unloading of the schooner and to the transship- 
ment of the goods to the ship in the Pool. Fie informed 
me that there was a covered van waiting on shore ; and 
telling Wilkinson that the small-arms had been disposed 
of, and tliat Mr. Mason would hand over the proceeds on 
our calling at Ids office, I went with a party of my rela- 
tive’s men into the run, and presently had the whole of the 
chests in the boat. Mason went with her. 

Tiien, as she disappeared in the darkness, but not till 
then, did I draw the first easy breath I had fetched since 
the hour of the collision of the Laughing Mary with the 
iceberg. A sob shook me ; I had gone through much ; 
many wonderful things had happened to me ; I had been 
delivered from such perils that the mere recollection of 
them will stir my hair, tliough it is years since ; my first 
duty I knew, a,nd I discharged it by withdrawing to my 
cabin and kneeling with humble and grateful heart before 
the throne of that Beir^ to whom I owed everything. 

^ U- 4^-T- 

POSTSCRIPT. > . - n 

Here concludes the remarkable narrative of Mr. Paul 


Rodney^ It is to be wished that he had found the patience 
to tell us a little more. The circumstance of his dying in 
1823 worth ;2^3 t,ooo leads me to suspect that his associate 


THE FROZEN PIRATE, 


249 


Tassard greatly exaggerated the value of the treasure. I 
am assured that he lived very quietly, and that the lady he 
married, who bore him two children, both of whom died 
young, was of a nun-like simplicity of character, and loved 
show and extravagance as little as her husband. Hence 
there is no reason to suppose that he squandered any por- 
tion of the fortune that had in the most extraordinary man- 
ner ever heard of fallen into his hands. 1 have ascertained 
that he very substantially discharged the great obligation 
that his relative Mason laid him under and that his three 
men received a thousand pounds apiece. It is possible, 
then, that the pirates were themselves deceived — that what 
they had taken to be gold or silver ingots were not all so ; 
or it might be that the case of jewelr}" was less valuable 
than the admiring and astonished eyes of a plain sailor, 
who admits that he had never before seen such a sight, 
figured it. Be this, however, as it may, it is nevertheless 
certain, as proved by Mr. Rodney’s last will and testament, 
that he did uncommonly well out of his adventure on the 
ice. 

Whatever may-^be thought of his story of the French- 
man’s restoration to life, in other directions Mr. Rodney’s 
accuracy seems unimpeachable. It is quite conceivable 
that a stoutly built vessel, locked up in the ice and thickly 
glazed, should continue in an excellent state of preserva- 
tion for years. The confession of his superstitious fears 
exhibits honesty and candor. It is related that a Captain 
Warren, master of an English merchant-ship, found a 
derelict in August, 1775, that had long been ice-bound, 
with her cabins filled with the bodies of the frozen crew. 
“ His own sailors, however, would not suffer him to search 
the vessel thoroughly, through superstition, and wished to 
leave her immediately.” A pity they did not try their 
hands at thawing one of the poor fellows ; the result might 
have kept Mr. Rodney’s strange experience in counte- 
nance ! 

Accounts of vast bodies of ice, such as Mr. Rodney fell 
in with, found in the “South Atlantic Directory.” 

Fur instance 5 ' ’ 

“Sir James C. Ross crossed Weddel’s track in Lat. 65° 
S., and where he had found an open sea Ross found an 
ice-pack of an impassable character, along which he sailed 
for 160 miles; and again, when only one degree beyond 
the track of Cook, who had no occasion to enter the pack, 
Ross was navigating among it for fifty-six days. 


250 


THE FROZEN PIRATE. 


“But these appear insignificant when compared with a 
body of ice reputed to have been passed by twenty-one 
ships during the months of December, 1854, and January, 
February, March, and April, 1855, floating in the South 
Atlantic from Lat. 44" S., Long. 28° W. to Lat. 40° S., 
Long. 20° W. Its elevation in no case exceeded 300 feet. 
The first account of it was received from the Great Britain, 
which in December, 1854, was reported to have steamed 
50 miles along the outer side of the longer shank. One 
ship was lost upon it ; others embayed.” 


CL |C,rbM 


THE END. 





marks the women of our households when they undertake to make their 
homes bright and cheery. Nothing deters them. Their weary work may 
be as long as the word which begins this paragraph, but they prove their 
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cf them should add to their toil by neglecting to use Sapolio. It reduces 
the labor of cleaning and scouring at least one-half. lOc, a cake. Sold by 
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Dr. a. W. Thompson, Northampton, Mass., says: ‘‘I have tested the 
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Dr. Wm. Tot> Helmuth declares the Gluten Suppositories to be “the 
best remedy for constipation which I have ever prescribed.” 

“As Sancho Panza said of sleep, so say I of your Gluten Suppositories : 
God bless the man who invented them!” — E. L. Ripley, Burlington, Vh 

“ I prescribe the Gluten Suppositories almost daily in my practice and 
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Schley, M.D., Professor Physical Diagnosis Woman's Medical College, 
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HEALTH FOOD CO., 75 4th Avenue, N. Y. 



THE BEST 

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Sold toy all iirst-ela&» 
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worthless Imitations* 


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“PAPA’S OWN GIRL.” 

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“ ds 7 tliinh of iliem, the inen, vx)men and chUdren of your story 
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This powerfully written and artistic Novel is to the social 
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J^ounder of the Famillstlre at Guise ; Prominent Leader of Indristries in 
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TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 

MARIE HOWLAND. 

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OUE EOMAU PALACE 


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“ A love story of the better class ; the tone is elevating and refined, and 
reading it is like living with nice people, and enjoying their pleasure.^ and 
social life. It is one of the most fascinating novels we have seen for a long 
time. A real trcdV'— Portland Argus. 

“ What shall we say of a book in which is not one love story alone, but in 
which three full-fledged ones are concentered ? The author writes not only 
entertainingly, but she Interweaves much that is excellent in tone and com- 
mendable in precept and example.”— Tro?/ WMg. 

“ It is pure in tone, refined in sentiment, and with a movement suflaclently 
rapid to keep the reader interested to the very end. Some conversations on 
music show that the author understands the divine art.”— Aero YorTc Evening 
Mail. 

“ ‘ Hilda and I ’ is a rest to the weary after the turbulence of recent un- 
limited folios of tragedy. It is a rich feast of pleasantness in ah possible 
directions. Music, art and all charming things rise up before one in the right 
place and at the proper momenc.”— Forfc Home Journal. 

“ Fresh and breezy as sea air ; full of originality in plot and incident, wito 
well drawn characters, who Uve and move with individuality and Interest. 
The heroine, Hilda, is at once charming, and a new creation in fictir^ / ” 
CeJey's Magazine, Philadelphia. 

“ The conversations are lively and sparkling— the characters are alwaj 
pare and true, and, although sometimes idealized beyond the requirements of 
a realistic standard, are not unnatural. The tone of the story is high, and its 
moral excellent.” — Bridgeport Standard. 


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The treatment of many thousands of 
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I>r. Pierce’s Favorite Prescrip- 
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As a powerinl, invigor^ing 
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its appendages, in particular. JFoK>over- 
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keepers^ nursing mothers, and feeble 
women generally, Dr. l^’ierc?^^ Pavorite 
Prescription js the greatest e^hly bpeh, 
being unequalled as an.appetiaing.'cor-'i 
dial and restorative tonic. It pfbfmotes 
digestion and assimilation of feod, cures 
nausea, weakness of stomach, ihdige^ 
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functional and organic disease ef the 
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Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescript 
tion is^ a legitimate, mcdiciue^^, 
carefully compounded by an experienc- 
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purely vegetable in its composition and 


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“Favorite Prescription” is a 
positive cure for the most compli- 
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cures Liver, Cidiiey and Bladder dJs; 
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Treating tSio Wrong Disiease.— 
Many times women call on their family 
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toms caused by ^onie woml>'disdrder. 
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arid coo^.e^ent complications. A prop- 
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ll tho 

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Liarge bottles (100 doses). $1.00^ or 
six bdttljijs for $.5.0(>. ^ ^ 

Send ten-bonts In stariips fo’f Dr. 
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pages) om Diseases of . bT omett .a < Wi^ess, 

- JJiBpensaty If^ical Associ ai^on, 

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